Intevac
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| Type | Public (NASDAQ: IVAC) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Capital Equipment & Photonics |
| Founded | 1991 |
| Headquarters |  Santa Clara, California |
| Key people | Norman H. Pond, Founder, Chairman of the Board, CEO, President Jeff Andreson, CFO |
| Revenue | $202.5 Million USD (2010) |
| Website | Financial data is FY2010.[1] |
Intevac, Inc. (NASDAQ: IVAC) is headquartered in Santa Clara, California in the Silicon Valley. The company has U.S. offices in Carlsbad, California and in Asia, with offices in China, Korea and Malaysia and Singapore.
Founded in 1991 as a spin-off from Varian Associates, Intevac went public in 1995. The company is organized into two business sectors: Process Equipment and Intevac Photonics.
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Process Equipment [edit]
Intevac's Process Equipment business develops and manufactures capital equipment for the hard disk drive (HDD) and solar industries. The company's capital equipment design is based on lean manufacturing principles, a methodology that simplifies design and processes in order to reduce waste and increase the product value for the customer.[2]
HDD [edit]
The 200 Lean™ Gen II is Intevac’s second generation sputtering system for magnetic hard disk media manufacturing. Introduced in 2008, the 200 Lean Gen II is based on the company’s 200 Lean tool for Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR). The first 200 Lean shipped in 2003 and as of 2011, Intevac has delivered over 220 systems to their customers. The company believes that their 200 Lean tool currently represents over 60% of installed systems worldwide.
The 200 Lean Gen II incorporates an enhanced control system and advanced software. Using Intevac’s multi-layer process source, the tool can deposit multiple layers of the ultra-thin films required by advanced HDD technologies including patterned media, the next major media technology transition for the hard drive industry.
Additional 200 Lean Gen II enhancements include a magnetically driven transport system that enables disk transfer from process station to process station in 600 milliseconds and throughput of up to 1000 disks per hour (dph). This represents a 40% decrease in transport time and a 25% increase in throughput [3] compared to the company’s 200 Lean system. The first 200 Lean Gen II system shipped in 2008.
Solar [edit]
LEAN SOLAR™
Intevac entered the solar market in 2009 with their LEAN SOLAR processing platform for CIGS cell manufacturing.
In 2010, the company introduced LEAN SOLAR for c-Si solar cell processing. The system is designed to reduce overall costs, improve cell quality, efficiency and yield, and increase profitability for Intevac’s solar customers. LEAN SOLAR processes cells individually at a throughput rate of 2400 cells per hour, with precise, uniform, repeatable, multi-layer film properties that enable a rapid scale-up to high efficiencies. The system has a small footprint, double-sided processing capabilities and a modular design to support evolving cell architectures.
The company has also developed process technology modules for their LEAN SOLAR platform. These include NanoTexture™ Etch, ENERGi ion implant, and an integrated Physical vapor deposition (PVD) module. Intevac’s ENERGi ion implantation module, designed specifically for solar, was developed by Solar Implant Technologies (SIT). SIT was acquired by Intevac in 2010.[4]
The first LEAN SOLAR c-Si system shipped in 2011.
Intevac Photonics [edit]
Intevac Photonics,[5] Intevac Vision Systems.
Intevac Vision Systems
IVS develops and manufactures compact digital-optical sensors and cameras for the capture and display of low-light images for government applications including night vision, long range target identification and simulation training. In 2007, Intevac acquired Creative Display Systems (CDS),[6] a Carlsbad, California-based manufacturer of high performance, miniature micro-display products. This acquisition added CDS assets to the IVS portfolio, including the I-Port™ family of high resolution near-eye display systems used for multiple applications in commercial industries and the military market.
IVS digital low-light and night vision products, based on Intevac’s patented Electron Bombarded Active Pixel Sensor (EBAPS™) CMOS technology include:
LIVAR® (Laser Illuminated Viewing and Ranging), a range-gated, laser-illuminated, two-dimensional imaging system for long range target identification
NightPort™, a 8.35 ounce digital image intensified (DI2) night vision viewer for handheld or helmet-mounted use
NightVista™ small footprint DI2 cameras and sensor modules for daylight, low light or nighttime imaging
