Ichor Holdings, Ltd. (‘Ichor’) is a leader in the design, engineering, and manufacturing of critical fluid delivery subsystems and components for semiconductor capital equipment.
The company's primary product offerings include gas and chemical delivery systems and subsystems, collectively known as fluid delivery systems and subsystems, which are key elements of the process tools used in the manufacturing of semiconductor devices. The company's gas delivery subsystems deliver, monitor, and contr...
Ichor Holdings, Ltd. (‘Ichor’) is a leader in the design, engineering, and manufacturing of critical fluid delivery subsystems and components for semiconductor capital equipment.
The company's primary product offerings include gas and chemical delivery systems and subsystems, collectively known as fluid delivery systems and subsystems, which are key elements of the process tools used in the manufacturing of semiconductor devices. The company's gas delivery subsystems deliver, monitor, and control precise quantities of the specialized gases used in semiconductor manufacturing processes, such as etch, and deposition. The company's chemical delivery systems and subsystems precisely blend and dispense the reactive liquid chemistries used in semiconductor manufacturing processes, such as chemical-mechanical planarization, electroplating, and cleaning. The company also provides precision-machined components, weldments, electron beam (‘e-beam’) and laser-welded components, precision vacuum and hydrogen brazing, and surface treatment technologies, and other proprietary products for the commercial space, aerospace, defense, medical device, and general-industrial industries. This vertically integrated portion of the company's business is primarily focused on metal and plastic parts that are used in gas and chemical systems, respectively.
Fluid delivery subsystems ensure accurate measurement and uniform delivery of specialty gases and chemicals at critical steps in the semiconductor manufacturing processes. Any malfunction or material degradation in fluid delivery reduces yields and increases the likelihood of manufacturing defects in these processes. Most original equipment manufacturers (‘OEMs’) outsource all or a portion of the design, engineering, and manufacturing of their gas delivery subsystems to a few specialized suppliers, including the company. Additionally, many OEMs are outsourcing the design, engineering, and manufacturing of their chemical delivery subsystems due to the increased fluid expertise required to manufacture these subsystems. Outsourcing these subsystems allows OEMs to leverage suppliers’ highly specialized engineering, design, and production skills while focusing their internal resources on their own value-added processes.
The company has long-standing relationships with top-tier OEM customers, including Lam Research, Applied Materials, and ASML, which were the company's largest customers by sales in 2024.
Growth Strategy
The key elements of the company's growth strategy are to grow its market share within the existing customer base; grow its total available market and share of the market with expanded product offerings; expand its total customer base within the fluid delivery market; and continue to improve its manufacturing process efficiency.
Products and Services
The company is a leader in the design, engineering, and manufacturing of critical fluid delivery subsystems and components. The company's product and service offerings are classified in the following categories:
Gas Delivery Subsystems
Gas delivery is among the technologically complex functions in semiconductor capital equipment and is used to deliver, monitor, and control precise quantities of the vapors and gases critical to the manufacturing process. The company's gas delivery systems consist of a number of gas lines, each controlled by a series of mass flow controllers, regulators, pressure transducers, valves, and an integrated electronic control system. The company's gas delivery subsystems are primarily used in equipment for ‘dry’ manufacturing processes, such as etch, chemical vapor deposition, physical vapor deposition, epitaxy, and strip.
Chemical Delivery Products and Subsystems
The company's chemical delivery products and subsystems are used to precisely blend and dispense reactive chemistries and colloidal slurries critical to the specific ‘wet’ front-end process, such as wet clean, electrochemical deposition, and chemical-mechanical planarization (‘CMP’). In addition to the chemical delivery subsystem, the company also manufactures the process modules that apply the various chemicals directly to the wafer in a process-and application-unique manner to create the desired chemical reaction.
Weldments and Specialty Joining
The company's complete offering of weldments supports the delivery of gases through the process tool. The company has developed both automated and manual welding processes to support world-class workmanship on all types of metals needed to support fluid delivery within the semiconductor market. The welded assemblies are used in both wet and dry processes, as well as non-semiconductor applications, including in the aerospace, commercial space, defense, medical device, and general industrial markets. The company offers a wide range of specialty joining technologies, including orbital, tungsten inert gas, e-beam, and laser welding, as well as hydrogen and vacuum brazing.
Precision Machining
Precision machining provides the company the ability to supply its customers with components used in its gas delivery systems and weldments, while also providing custom machined solutions throughout customers’ equipment. Many of these items are used downstream of the gas system and in process-critical applications. Machined components are also provided to other critical non-semiconductor markets, including aerospace and medical device.
Customers, Sales, and Marketing
The company primarily markets and sells its products directly to equipment OEMs in the semiconductor equipment market. The company is dependent upon a small number of customers, as the semiconductor equipment manufacturer market is concentrated, with five companies accounting for over 70% of all process tool revenues. For 2024, two customers with individual sales over 10%, Lam Research and Applied Materials, accounted for a combined 73% of total sales.
The company's sales and marketing efforts focus on fostering close business relationships with its customers. As a result, the company locates many of its account managers near the customer they support. The company's sales process involves close collaboration between its account managers and engineering and operations teams. Account managers and engineers work together with customers, and in certain cases, provide on-site support, including attending customers’ internal meetings related to production and engineering design. Each customer project is supported by the company's account managers and customer support team who ensure alignment with all of the customer’s quality, cost, and delivery expectations.
Manufacturing
The company has facilities in the United States, Singapore, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, Korea, and Mexico. The company is ISO 9001 certified or compliant at its manufacturing locations, and its manufactured subsystems and modules strive to adhere to strict design tolerances and specifications.
Competition
The company faces competition from Ultra Clean Technology.
Intellectual Property
As of December 27, 2024, the company had 81 granted patents and 95 pending patent applications, of which 38 and 27, respectively, were filed in the U.S. The expiration dates of the company's granted patents range from 2027 to 2042.
History
Ichor Holdings, Ltd. was founded in 1999. The company was incorporated in 1999.