Lam Research Corporation (Nasdaq:LRCX), a global supplier of innovative wafer fabrication equipment and services to the semiconductor industry, announced that it has completed the acquisition of Coventor, Inc., a provider of simulation and modeling solutions for semiconductor process technology, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), and the Internet of Things (IoT). The combination of Lam and Coventor supports Lam’s advanced process control vision and is expected to accelerate process integration simulation to increase the value of virtual processing, further enabling chipmakers to address some of their most significant technical challenges.
“We see a strong synergy between our modeling capability and Lam’s desire to enable virtual experimentation of process development for customers and within its business units,” said Mike Jamiolkowski, president and CEO of Coventor. “We believe that our combination will increase the value we can deliver to our customers by providing more capability and improving their time to market.”
Customers rely on Coventor software and expertise to help predict the structures and behavior of designs before committing to time-consuming and costly wafer fabrication. This fast and accurate “virtual fabrication” allows technology developers and manufacturers to understand process variation effects early in the development timeframe and reduce the number of silicon learning cycles required to bring a successful product to market.
“We are looking forward to Coventor being a part of Lam and increasing the value and contribution we jointly provide to our customers,” said Rick Gottscho, executive vice president and corporate chief technical officer of Lam Research. “To keep pace with future design requirements, new technologies such as virtual fabrication and processing will be crucial to improve time to market. Together, our collective goal is to deliver more simulation, more virtual fabrication, and an overall increase in computational techniques to support the development of next-generation transistors, memories, MEMS and IoT devices.”