specialty industrial applications. VSD products are derived from MKS’ core competencies in vacuum technologies, including pressure measurement and control, flow measurement and control, gas and vapor delivery, gas composition analysis, electronic control technology, reactive gas generation and delivery, power generation and delivery, and fiber optic temperature and position sensing. The PSD segment provides a broad range of instruments, components and subsystems to leading edge semiconductor manufacturing, electronics and packaging and specialty industrial applications. PSD products are derived from MKS’ core competencies in lasers, photonics, optics, precision motion control and vibration control. The MSD segment develops leading process and manufacturing technologies for advanced surface modification, electroless and electrolytic plating, and surface finishing. Applying a comprehensive systems-and-solutions approach, MSD’s portfolio includes chemistry, equipment and services for innovative and high-technology applications in our electronics and packaging and specialty industrial markets.
MKS has tens of thousands of products in its portfolio. MKS’ products are used in diverse markets, applications and processes. MKS serves the semiconductor, electronics and packaging, and specialty industrial markets.
Semiconductor Market
MKS is a critical solutions provider for semiconductor manufacturing. Our products are used in major semiconductor processing steps, such as deposition, etching, cleaning, lithography, metrology, and inspection. The semiconductor industry continually faces new challenges, as products become smaller, more powerful and highly mobile. Ultra-thin layers, smaller critical dimensions, new materials, 3D structures, and the ongoing need for higher yield and productivity drive the need for tighter process measurement and control, all of which MKS supports. We believe we are the broadest critical subsystem provider in the wafer fabrication equipment ecosystem and address over 85% of the market. We characterize our broad and unique offering as Surround the Wafer® to reflect the technology enablement we provide across almost every major process in semiconductor manufacturing today.
Electronics and Packaging Market
MKS is a foundational solutions provider for the electronics and packaging market. Our portfolio includes photonics components, laser drilling systems, electronics chemistries and plating equipment that are critical for the manufacturing of printed circuit boards (“PCBs”) and package substrates, and critical to wafer level packaging (“WLP”) applications. Similar to the semiconductor industry, the PCB, package substrate and WLP industries increasingly demand smaller features, greater density, and better performance. We believe we are well positioned to support innovation in advanced technologies that underpin the growing adoption of artificial intelligence. We characterize our complementary offering of laser systems and chemistry solutions as Optimize the Interconnect®, to reflect the unique technology enablement we provide at the Interconnect level within PCBs, package substrates and WLPs.
Specialty Industrial Market
MKS’ strategy in the specialty industrial market is to leverage our domain expertise and proprietary technologies across a broad array of applications in industrial, life and health sciences, and research and defense markets. Industrial encompasses a wide range of diverse applications, including chemistries for functional coatings, surface finishing and wear resistance in the automobile industry, vacuum solutions for synthetic diamond manufacturing and photonics for solar manufacturing. Other applications include vacuum and photonics solutions for light emitting diode and laser diode manufacturing. Our products for life and health sciences are used in a diverse array of applications, including bioimaging, medical instrument sterilization, medical device manufacturing, analytical, diagnostic and surgical instrumentation, consumable medical supply manufacturing and pharmaceutical production. Our products for research and defense are sold to government, university and industrial laboratories for applications involving research and development in materials science, physical chemistry, photonics, optics and electronics materials. Our products are also sold for monitoring and defense applications including surveillance, imaging and infrastructure protection.
Except for certain specific product lines (e.g. fittings, flanges, lenses, certain mirrors, tubing, certain chemistry products, etc.), many of the products MKS manufactures or contracts to manufacture include tin, gold, tantalum and/or tungsten. Additionally, MSD sells chemical solutions that themselves directly contain gold and tin (e.g. Aurotech®and Stannatech® products). As a result, Conflict Minerals are found in many MKS products.