Jan. 10, 2007 — Tokyo Electron (TEL), the world’s second largest supplier of semiconductor production equipment, announced the company has acquired Epion Corporation, supplier of gas cluster ion beam (GCIB) technology for diverse semiconductor applications and emerging nanotechnology markets.

Epion’s GCIB is a highly versatile atomic-scale processing technique that is ideal for production applications where surface and film quality are crucial, the company said. Key applications for GCIB include etching, smoothing, doping and physical and chemical surface modification.

“As our customers continue to aggressively shrink geometries and adopt new materials and novel device structures, we believe Epion’s unique technology will find its way into several high volume production applications,” said Lou Steen, vice president of marketing for TEL US and newly-appointed president of TEL Epion, in a prepared statement. “We believe that TEL’s worldwide service and support organizations will greatly enhance customer satisfaction of Epion’s nFusion System and Ultra Trimmer products.”