Pursuing integrated and rapid thermal processes, 1995-1999

After booming demand around 1995, semiconductor revenues declined due to overcapacity of product lines and an economic crisis in South-East Asia that lasted into 1998 (cf. Business IV). At the start of this period, ASM International’s operations active in wafer processing equipment strictly focused on three products: vertical furnaces, epitaxy, and single wafer plasma deposition. This focus had enabled the recovery of ASM International after the volatile early 1990s. Consequently, ideas or suggestions for new diversification of activities tensed up management. The remaining products required plenty of resources, for instance in coping with their own demand and preparing for the new wafer 300-millimeter standard. Amidst these circumstances, the innovation of gate stack technology was not self-evident within ASM International.