As of: March 28, 2024, 6:05 a.m
By: Matthias Schneider
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Chips are cut from these wafers. © Sebastian Kahnert/dpa/archive image
The name Süss Microtec is usually only known to experts, but the Garching-based company is one of the most important high-tech companies on the planet. The rise of AI enables further growth.
Munich - The industrial equipment supplier Süss Microtec flies somewhat under the radar publicly, but is probably one of the most important high-tech companies in the world: The Garching-based company supplies the machines for the production of the large chip companies. The current AI boom has given you the best order quarter in the company's 75-year history, explains Burkhardt Frick, former manager at the Dutch industry leader ASML and managing director at Süss Microtec since September 2023.
Mr. Frick, you last went to Munich 30 years ago to study electrical engineering. How has the chip world changed since then?
The basic processes have not fundamentally changed, but the chips have become increasingly complex. We now have to push the limits of physics to create ever finer structures.
Which requires more and more computing power, including for AI applications. Has the current euphoria reached you too?
The wave actually started in the summer of 2023 and has continued since then. Last year, AI applications suddenly accounted for around a third of our order intake, and we currently have a record inventory. Our sales also grew by 17 percent in 2023. In the AI area, we primarily offer temporary bonding systems. We help – in very simplified terms – to produce particularly thin wafers and thus chips and then connect them together to increase performance.
Sounds simple actually.
In fact, this is high technology, because the correct connection of the memory chips with the actual computing chips determines the performance of the AI. Most of our devices in this area go to high bandwidth memory chip manufacturers in Taiwan and Korea. This is a new type of storage that can efficiently process large amounts of data extremely quickly and is needed for AI applications.
What does this mean for your production?
The demand is so great that we have had to double the production of our temporary bonders. We did this at our location in Taiwan, where it happened very quickly due to the skills we already had. In this context, we relocated a product type from our location in Sternenfels to Taiwan. We are using the freed-up capacity in Sternenfels to build more other facilities.
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Is the demand continuing?
The boom continues, but perhaps not quite at the very high levels of 2023. We will have to see what happens once the first and second waves have gone into production. In the end, our products will be used to enable generative AI such as ChatGPT and accordingly demand will depend on how much the applications will be used by all of us in the future and how many more chips will be needed for them. But we're not just focused on AI.
What are your most important business areas currently?
These include power semiconductors, for example for e-mobility. This also works in other cycles, so we are not dependent on a trend. Our core business also includes systems with which the chips are exposed. Our systems create the structures into which chip manufacturers mill their circuits, apply the photoresist and expose it. We have a global market share of up to 50 percent for these lithography systems. When it comes to the machines that clean the photo masks, we have a good 90 percent market share in the high-end range. These machines have to process masks in the nanometer range - and we are the only ones who can produce such complete solutions.
But the new AI memory chips are a new business. Can you hold your position there?
We are now qualified as suppliers to several manufacturers, which gives us a certain advantage. With such qualifications, you work very closely with your customers over several years. The reason is that the processes are very complex; you cannot simply set up a machine that then produces. That's why it's important for us to be involved early on new developments.
How does growth affect the company?
We are growing rapidly and need to increase capacity at all locations to meet demand. We do this at our existing locations - we have 58 open positions in Garching alone - but we are also looking for new locations. We do this primarily in Europe, but also in Asia, where 70 percent of our customers are located. But like everyone else, we are also struggling with the shortage of skilled workers. Munich is very attractive, but also very expensive.
They do a lot of business in China and Taiwan. How dangerous are the military tensions?
Personally, I'm not too worried. I lived in Hong Kong for eight years and visited Taiwan weekly. People there have been living with this situation for decades; the issue only came onto the scene very late in Europe. Much of the world's chip production goes through Taiwan - but the factories stop functioning when Western engineers are withdrawn.