, or TEL, is a Japanese

electronics Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other Electric charge, electrically charged particles. It is a subfield ...

and semiconductor company headquartered in Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo,

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. The company was founded as Tokyo Electron Laboratories, Inc. in 1963. TEL is best known as a supplier of equipment to fabricate

integrated circuits An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip or simply chip, is a set of electronic circuits, consisting of various electronic components (such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors) and their interconnections. These components a ...

(IC), flat panel displays (FPD), and photovoltaic cells (PV). , or TED, is a subsidiary of TEL specializing in

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 ...

electronic components An electronic component is any basic discrete electronic device or physical entity part of an Electronics, electronic system used to affect electrons or their associated electromagnetic field, fields. Electronic components are mostly industrial ...

, and networking devices. As of 2011, TEL was the largest manufacturer of IC and FPD production equipment. Listed on the

Nikkei 225 The Nikkei 225, or , more commonly called the ''Nikkei'' or the ''Nikkei index'' (), is a stock market index for the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE). It is a price-weighted index, operating in the Japanese yen, Japanese Yen (JP¥), and its compone ...

, in 2024, Tokyo Electron had a market cap of US$114.6 billion, making it the third-most valuable company in Japan in terms of market cap, and the 12th ranked semiconductor-related company worldwide.

Company history

1963-1979

On 11 November 1963 Tokyo Electron Laboratories Incorporated was founded by Tokuo Kubo and Toshio Kodaka, largely funded by

Tokyo Broadcasting System (formerly ) is a Japanese media and licensed broadcasting holding company. It is the parent company of the television network TBS Television and radio network TBS Radio. It has a 28-affiliate television network called Japan News Network, as ...

(TBS), with a capital of over five million yen. Later that year, their office opened in the TBS main building and began manufacturing thousands of quality-control and importing diffusion furnaces made by Thermco and selling Japanese-made car radios. In 1965 the company approached a rapidly growing business in the market, Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation, and agreed to serve as a sales agency for them, increasing their capital to twenty million yen. Tokyo Electron began exporting IC testers, IC sockets, IC connectors, and other similar computer components. The company opened an office in

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

and their new branch, Pan Electron, in 1968, establishing themselves as the only stocking distributor of imported electronic components in the region. One year later, they opened their

Yokohama is the List of cities in Japan, second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous Municipalities of Japan, municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a popu ...

office and established Teltron, a major manufacturer and distributor of car stereos, expanding their headquarters to fill the entire TBS-2 building and raising their capital to 100 million yen.

1980-1999

The American electronics company Genrad Inc. and Tokyo Electron Ltd. in 1981 formed a joint venture manufacturing unit, Tel-Genrad Ltd., to make in-circuit board test systems in Japan. Tokyo Electron in 1986 was described by the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' as a maker of semiconductor manufacturing equipment. In 1990, Tokyo Electron was competing with the Japanese company Dai Nippon Screen and the American company Silicon Valley Group as the largest producer of equipment to make semiconductors. In 1991, Tokyo Electron was one of five Japanese companies criticized by the

SEMATECH SEMATECH (from Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology) was a not-for-profit consortium that performed research and development to advance chip manufacturing. SEMATECH involved collaboration between various sectors of the R&D community, includin ...

consortium for allegedly withholding new technology from the United States, specifically "precision heating equipment" made by Tokyo Electron Ltd. and Kokusai. By the early 1990s, Tokyo Electron's American rival Applied Materials was losing market share, and "sought U.S. government help in the form of an import quota" to the American market. In May 1995, Tokyo Electron Ltd. was Japan's largest vendor of equipment to make semiconductors.

2000-2024

After import controls, Applied Materials by 2001 was double the size of Tokyo Electron, which was its next nearest competitor. In 2001, TEL acquired Timbre Technologies Inc. in

Fremont, California Fremont () is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. Located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay Area, Fremont has a population of 230,504 as of 2020, making it the fourth List of cities and towns in the San F ...

, which developed measurement software technology. In 2004, TEL announced improvements to its plasma etch chamber products. In 2005, Tokyo Electron was still the second-largest maker of chip manufacturing gear after Applied Materials, and above ASML. In 2006, Tokyo Electron had a research center at the Albany NanoTech complex, a

nanotechnology Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter with at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometers (nm). At this scale, commonly known as the nanoscale, surface area and quantum mechanical effects become important in describing propertie ...

center in New York. The company started a venture capital unit in 2006, TEL Venture Capital, based in California. As of 2011, TEL was the largest manufacturer of IC and FPD production equipment. On September 24, 2013, Tokyo Electron and Applied Materials announced a merger, forming a new company to be called Eteris. Eteris would have been the world's largest supplier of semiconductor processing equipment, with a total market value of approximately $29 billion. On 26 April 2015, the $10 billion merger was cancelled due to antitrust concerns in the United States. In June 2023, Tokyo Electron was ranked among the Forbes Global 2000 list of the world's largest companies, at which point it had around 12,742 employees. In late 2023, it was the largest semiconductor equipment maker in Asia. It was generating 43 percent of its revenue from China. In October 2023, the company announced it had developed new technology to improve advanced 3D NAND flash memory, making it the only competitor to Lam Research. In early 2024 the company said it would raise its employees' starting salaries by 40% to secure talent and compete with the payrates of foreign companies. In February 2024, Tokyo Electron's market cap closed at US$114.6 billion, making it the third-most valuable company in Japan in terms of market cap, beating Sony Group. It also become the 12th ranked among semiconductor-related companies worldwide in terms of market cap. It continues to be listed on the

. In 2024, Toshiki Kawai was president and CEO, while Yoshikazu Nunokawa was chairman of the board.

Products and services

Supplying equipment to fabricate

(IC), flat panel displays (FPD), and photovoltaic cells (PV), according to ''Barron's'' in 2024, Tokyo Electron Ltd. is engaged in the "development, manufacture, and sale of semiconductor production equipment and industrial electronics products for flat panel display manufacturing equipment." It has three segments: Semiconductor Production Equipment (SPE), Flat Panel Display (FPD) Production Equipment and Others. Others includes logistics, facilities management, and insurance. In 2023, it was reported that the company's FPD business had become "minor" in its earnings, while its SPE segment was steadily growing. TEL's SPE segment develops and sells SPE such as coaters/developers, plasma etch systems, thermal processing systems, single wafer deposition systems, cleaning systems, and

wafer prober A wafer is a crisp, often sweet, very thin, flat, light biscuit, often used to decorate ice cream, and also used as a garnish on some sweet dishes. They frequently have a waffle surface pattern but may also be patterned with insignia of the fo ...

s. The FPD segment focuses on SPE for flat panel displays. In 2024, services listed by the company included field solutions, engineering services, repairs and spare parts, upgrades and modifications, and overhauling used products. In 2012, TEL produced SPE for multiple purposes. Among those purposes was thermal processing, involving the deposition of thin layers of

dielectric In electromagnetism, a dielectric (or dielectric medium) is an Insulator (electricity), electrical insulator that can be Polarisability, polarised by an applied electric field. When a dielectric material is placed in an electric field, electric ...

material between

transistors A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch electrical signals and electric power, power. It is one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics. It is composed of semicondu ...

onto the silicon wafer surface, using a heated low-pressure

chemical vapor deposition Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is a vacuum deposition method used to produce high-quality, and high-performance, solid materials. The process is often used in the semiconductor industry to produce thin films. In typical CVD, the wafer (electro ...

(LPCVD) or oxidation process. Also in 2012, products involved

photoresist A photoresist (also known simply as a resist) is a light-sensitive material used in several processes, such as photolithography and photoengraving, to form a patterned coating on a surface. This process is crucial in the electronics industry. T ...

coating and developing to project a microscopic circuitry pattern on the wafer in

photolithography Photolithography (also known as optical lithography) is a process used in the manufacturing of integrated circuits. It involves using light to transfer a pattern onto a substrate, typically a silicon wafer. The process begins with a photosensiti ...

. There was also plasma etching, and products focused on wet surface preparation, using cleaning to remove contaminants such as dust. Other product areas in 2012 included single wafer

, involving the deposition of thin layers of various materials, such as

tungsten Tungsten (also called wolfram) is a chemical element; it has symbol W and atomic number 74. It is a metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively in compounds with other elements. It was identified as a distinct element in 1781 and first ...

, tungsten silicide,

titanium Titanium is a chemical element; it has symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resistant to corrosion in ...

, titanium nitride, and tantalum oxide. TEL's wafer probers tested the functionality and performance of each die on the wafer, while other products allowed corrective etching and trimming of thin films such as

silicon Silicon is a chemical element; it has symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic lustre, and is a tetravalent metalloid (sometimes considered a non-metal) and semiconductor. It is a membe ...

, silicon nitride,

silicon dioxide Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , commonly found in nature as quartz. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is one of the most complex and abundan ...

, aluminum nitride, and metals. It also sold integrated

metrology Metrology is the scientific study of measurement. It establishes a common understanding of Unit of measurement, units, crucial in linking human activities. Modern metrology has its roots in the French Revolution's political motivation to stan ...

(co-developed by TEL and KLA Tencor) in 2012, and products for material and surface modification and doping using gas cluster ion beam (GCIB) technology. In 2016, it was involved in selling Advanced Packaging.

Group companies

The Tokyo Electron Group consists of TEL and the following subsidiaries: * TEL Epion Inc. * TEL FSI, Inc. * TEL Solar * TEL Technology Center, America, LLC * TEL Venture Capital, Inc. * Tokyo Electron Device Limited * Tokyo Electron Yamanashi Limited * Tokyo Electron Tohoku Limited * Tokyo Electron Kyushu Limited * Tokyo Electron Miyagi Limited * Tokyo Electron Technology Development Institute, Inc. * Tokyo Electron Software Technologies Limited * Tokyo Electron FE Limited * Tokyo Electron BP Limited * Tokyo Electron PV Limited * Tokyo Electron TS Limited * Tokyo Electron Agency Limited * Tokyo Electron U.S. Holdings, Inc. * Tokyo Electron America, Inc. * Tokyo Electron Europe Limited — Head Office (

Crawley Crawley () is a town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in West Sussex, England. It is south of London, north of Brighton and Hove, and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Crawley covers an area of and had a populat ...

, England) *: German Branch *: Italian Branch *: Netherlands Branch *: Irish Branch *: French Branch * Tokyo Electron Israel Limited * Tokyo Electron Korea Limited * Tokyo Electron Korea Solution Limited * Tokyo Electron Taiwan Limited * Tokyo Electron (Shanghai) Limited * Tokyo Electron (Shanghai) Logistic Center Limited * Tokyo Electron (Kunshan) Limited * Tokyo Electron Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. * Tokyo Electron Singapore Pte. Ltd. * Timbre Technologies, Inc.

Research and development

TEL's Leading-edge Process Development Center is located in Nirasaki, Yamanashi. TEL also has the

Kansai The or the lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshū. The region includes the prefectures of Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo and Shiga, often also Mie, sometimes Fukui, Tokushima and Tottori. The metropoli ...

Technology Center in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture and the Sendai Design and Development Center in

Sendai is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Miyagi Prefecture and the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,098,335 in 539,698 households, making it the List of cities in Japan, twelfth most populated city in Japan. ...

Miyagi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Miyagi Prefecture has a population of 2,265,724 (1 August 2023) and has a geographic area of . Miyagi Prefecture borders Iwate Prefecture to the north, Akit ...

. TEL Technology Center, America, LLC in

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is located on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River. Albany is the oldes ...

is the R&D center in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. TEL is one of the partners of

IMEC Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (IMEC; officially stylised as imec) is an international Research and development, research & development organization, active in the fields of nanoelectronics and Digital electronics, digital technologies ...

, a

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 ...

and

nanoelectronics Nanoelectronics refers to the use of nanotechnology in electronic components. The term covers a diverse set of devices and materials, with the common characteristic that they are so small that inter-atomic interactions and quantum mechanical ...

research center in Leuven, Belgium. In July 2014 TEL announced the establishment of joint assembly lab with the Institute of Microelectronics in Singapore. The lab is focused on the research and development of Wafer Level Packaging and assembly, to address the need of

Internet of Things Internet of things (IoT) describes devices with sensors, processing ability, software and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other communication networks. The IoT encompasse ...

with devices of high performance and low power consumption. In 2023 it was selling its US headquarters in Southeast

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

, under CEO Toshiki Kawai. In 2024, it leased a new American headquarters in Austin. In 2025, Tokyo Electron Technology Solutions, the company's manufacturing subsidiary, is expected to build a $170 million chip equipment plant in Oshu, Japan.

Sponsorships

Miyagi Prefectural Auditorium viewed from a greenway in Jozenji-dori avenue

TEL supports association football in Japan by sponsoring the J. League as a whole and the football club Ventforet Kofu based in Kofu and Nirasaki as well as the rest of Yamanashi Prefecture. The company has acquired

naming rights Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization where a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event (most often sports venues), typical ...

of two multipurpose halls: * owned by Nirasaki City * owned by Miyagi Prefecture (currently closed due to the heavy earthquake damage)

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1963 establishments in Japan Manufacturing companies established in 1963 Electronics companies established in 1963 Japanese companies established in 1963 Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Companies in the Nikkei 225 Equipment semiconductor companies Electronics companies of Japan Defense companies of Japan Tokyo Broadcasting System Engineering companies based in Tokyo Manufacturing companies based in Tokyo Japanese brands