February 23, 2012
Herman van Eijkelenburg, Dir, Product Marketing, AMETEK
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Herman van Eijkelenburg,
Dir, Product Marketing,
AMETEK Programmable
Power
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AMETEK Programmable Power serves
diverse industry segments, including the semiconductor industry. While 2011 was
a strong year for our company, as with most companies serving this sector, we felt
continued sluggishness in the semiconductor production and test equipment
marketplace this past year.
This was especially apparent in equipment used for high
brightness LEDs designed for backlighting of flat panel TVs, an industry
segment that is gradually becoming saturated. In general, we expect this
segment to experience flat order rates until the second half of 2012. This will
be strongly influenced by global markets that experience only modest growth due
to factors like the European debt crisis and slower economic growth in China.
On the upside, there will be continued investment in
production assets for HBLEDs used in other types of solidstate lighting,
driving demand for equipment to increase capacity and reduce the cost of HBLEDs.
In addition to scaling up wafer sizes and component densities, there will be a
lot of pressure to increase yields. This in turn is driving demand for larger and
more productive test systems, such as scaled up programmable power sources.
The underlying force behind HBLED
market growth is the green initiative, particularly as it affects industrial
and office lighting. Fluorescent lighting energy consumption in these market
segments runs into billions of dollars annually. Because they can justify the
higher cost of HBLED lighting with a relatively fast payback, these segments will
be early adopters of the technology.
Herman van Eijkelenburg, Dir, Product Marketing & Application Engineering
AMETEK Programmable Power
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