Eurocontrol says XwinSys subsidiary advances in its goals, talks with major semiconductor companies underway
26th Jun 2014, 12:44 pm by Deborah Bacal
Israel-based XwinSys, which is a start-up business acquired by Eurocontrol in May 2012, is aiming to become a leading manufacturer of a combination of image processing technology and the Energy-Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (EDXRF) technology made by Eurocontrol's other subsidiary Xenemetrix, for use in the semiconductor industry. () provided investors Thursday with an update on its XwinSys subsidiary, which is reporting progress in its ability to perform inspection and verification for the semiconductor manufacturing process.
Israel-based XwinSys, which is a start-up business acquired by Eurocontrol in May 2012, is aiming to become a leading manufacturer of a combination of image processing technology and the Energy-Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (EDXRF) technology made by Eurocontrol's other subsidiary Xenemetrix, for use in the semiconductor industry.
The semiconductor industry, sized at $300 billion, deals with micro and nano electronics packaged in a chip which has becomeubiquitous in applications such as computers, smart devices and transportation. The metal connectors in semiconductor devices have traditionally been made of tin and lead, the latter of which the industry has stopped using due to toxicity, instead using silver.
This has changed the ability to accurately control the connectors, which have to be extremely specific in metallurgical content as well as size, shape and density. XwinSys wants to use both its technologies hand in hand to solve these problems, with the 2D and 3D image processing technology used to surface scan the wafers and electronic boards used in semiconductors, while the EDXRF technology is used for elemental analysis of the materials.
XwinSys says it has had meetings with "leading semiconductor manufacturers" and capital equipment suppliers, and has received enthusiastic interest for its proposed offering.Tests are underway for some of these companies using a prototype sysetm, with initial results so far positive. The system will continue to be configured during this year and next, the company said.
The company also took note of recent visits by senior managers from a "leading semiconductor manufacturer" in Japan, which nominated a technical evaluator to investigate the potential to purchase a system during 2015.
XwinSys has also visited a manufacturer's facility in Korea following that company's request to discuss the first successful round of technology evaluation that was performed on the XwinSys demo system in Israel.
The current estimated $300 million size of the 3D interconnect inspection market precludes the new requirement for inspection of the emerging 3D structures, a market which is estimated to exceed $500 million per year. XwinSys said its goal is to capture 10% of this market with its initial product offering. (targeting $50million intial rollout-appx 10 times where revenues sit as of last YE report-as product rollout $ target figure-margins will be extremely favorable SS)
Additional verification applications in other industries are also being assessed, Eurocontrol said. (vertical integration-market applications-highly scalable SS)
“Eurocontrol is pleased to report that this engineering combination of EDXRF and 3D image processing has merged on time and on budget from our team at XwinSys,” said chairman and CEO of Eurocontrol Bruce Rowlands.
CEO of XwinSys, Doron Reinis, added: “The cooperation with two of the major semiconductor manufacturers in the world will contribute to our ability to supply a system that suites the evolving manufacturing process of the industry.” (Intel? being one of them?? SS)
Eurocontrol’s chief business is its Petromark technology, a four-part proprietary fuel marking system that identifies fuel that has been tampered with --- for example diluted with lower grade fuel, propane, water or even urine --- but in a covert way, without the use of coloured dyes. The technology is the only one in the world that has an ISO 17025 accreditation, meaning it is of sufficient forensic quality to be admissible into a court of law for evidence.
NB. Not anymore-pending closure of sale to SICPA for $16million upfront cash and 5% royalty stream freeing up Manpower and Focus-strategical and tactical to this huge market sector opp for XwinSys-entering with zero debt-cash flow from royalty stream from Petromark royalty stream back stopped by minimum $1.5million guarantee going forward as baseline and to capitalize on the major semi conductor company XwinSys product development/collaboration and relationship with Eurocontrol already deeply established.
I like this move to the pure tech space in the semi conductor space and the multiple vertical markets that will open and the fact the major semi conductor players have given their technical and working knowledge input into the RandD XwinSys program bringing EUO's authentication application to commercial status in a few months short period of time.
SS