Atomic force microscopy (AFM) company Park Systems is aiming to increase its revenue by 30% this year.
Park Systems director Cho Sang-joon told TheElec that the company expects the goal will be met despite the downturn of the chip market.
Last year the company recorded 122.1 billion won in revenue and 31.2 billion won in operating income, an increase of 43% and 77%, respectively, from 2021.
This was thanks to the high demand for AFM machines in advanced chip production.
AFM is an observation method that uses atomic force between the probe and the sample surface.
The precision of the method makes it ideal to measure the surface of wafers with nanometer chips.
The demand for the machines is high among chipmakers as they apply advanced processes such as extreme ultraviolet (EUV) to make even smaller chips.
Cho explained that last year, it saw high demand for its NX-MASK, its photomask repair equipment for EUV.
Its NX-Hybrid WLI and display inspection equipment NX-TSH also saw high demand, the director said.
Cho said that five years ago, only around 20% of the world’s chipmakers used Park Systems’ equipment. But today, 95% of them are using its AFM machinery, he said.
As circuit patterns are becoming narrower, ParkSystems is seeing more applications of AFM from advanced memory, and logic to back-end processes, the director added.
