FSI International, Inc. (FSI) is an American manufacturing company based in

Chaska, Minnesota Chaska ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Carver County, Minnesota, Carver County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 27,810 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. An outer ring suburb of the Twin Cities located southwe ...

, that supplies processing equipment used to manufacture microelectronics, including

semiconductor devices A semiconductor device is an electronic component that relies on the electronics, electronic properties of a semiconductor material (primarily silicon, germanium, and gallium arsenide, as well as organic semiconductors) for its function. Its co ...

History

The company's history began with the establishment of Fluoroware, Inc. in 1966, a company that made fixtures to hold the silicon wafers in place during the various processes involved in producing semiconductor devices. When asked to design a drying apparatus, the principals of Fluoroware agreed to do so and established FSI International in 1973 to market this new product. The company's offerings expanded to meet the market need for equipment used in the fabrication of

microelectronics Microelectronics is a subfield of electronics. As the name suggests, microelectronics relates to the study and manufacture (or microfabrication) of very small electronic designs and components. Usually, but not always, this means micrometre ...

. In the 1990s, the company relocated from its original facility overlooking Hazeltine Lake to a larger site nearby. In 1999, FSI International announced an agreement to acquire YieldUP International Corp. In October 2012,

Tokyo Electron , or TEL, is a Japanese electronics and semiconductor company headquartered in Akasaka, Tokyo, Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan. The company was founded as Tokyo Electron Laboratories, Inc. in 1963. TEL is best known as a supplier of equipment to ...

acquired FSI International, Inc. and renamed the division TEL FSI.

Products

FSI International supplied wafer cleaning equipment, using wet,

cryogenic In physics, cryogenics is the production and behaviour of materials at very low temperatures. The 13th International Institute of Refrigeration's (IIR) International Congress of Refrigeration (held in Washington, DC in 1971) endorsed a univers ...

or other chemistry techniques. The company also sold

microlithography Microlithography is a general name for any manufacturing process that can create a minutely patterned thin film of protective materials over a substrate, such as a silicon wafer, in order to protect selected areas of it during subsequent etchin ...

systems using photoresist processes. The company provides upgrade, replacement and other support services. The five main series of equipment produced by the company are/were: ZETA, ORION, ANTARES, POLARIS, and up to late 2024, the MERCURY. In earlier years, the company also produced the SATURN, TITAN and NEPTUNE processing systems. In late 2024 the company sold the assets and manufacturing rights for the MERCURY to the company Shellback. Some of the products of the company are spray cleaning systems, single wafer cleaning systems, cryogenic processing systems, and immersion cleaning systems.

References

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External links

Official FSI International website
Semiconductor companies of the United States Manufacturing companies based in Minnesota Chaska, Minnesota Electronics companies established in 1973 1973 establishments in Minnesota Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq