24. October 2018 | Finance News

AIXTRON and IRUJA Co. Ltd. sign Joint Venture Agreement

APEVA to become a complete OLED deposition system provider

Herzogenrath/Germany, October 24, 2018 - AIXTRON SE today announced a Joint Venture agreement by AIXTRON SE, Germany and IRUJA Co. Ltd., South Korea to invest in APEVA, AIXTRON's subsidiary for OLED deposition technologies. Closing of the Joint Venture Agreement is expected during 2018.

IRUJA will contribute their well-established Automation & Handling Technology for the display market into the Joint Venture in steps, also making cash contributions. In exchange for these contributions, IRUJA will obtain an equity stake in APEVA of up to 20% over the next few years. Furthermore, IRUJA will act as a manufacturing partner in Korea for APEVA to give access to a high quality local supply chain and manufacturing resources. AIXTRON has contributed its innovative OVPD technologies into APEVA, which enables the highly efficient deposition of organic materials in a very well controlled manner.

Based on the contributions from both companies, APEVA will become a complete deposition system provider for the organic material layers within the OLED stack. Its product offering will span the complete set of key modules from innovative organic evaporation sources, deposition process technology as well as substrate handling systems and the required vacuum technology. APEVA will operate out of locations in Herzogenrath, Germany (for deposition technology) and out of Asan-si, Chungcheongnam-do, South Korea (for Automation & Handling technology as well as local customer support) in close proximity to major OLED customers.

IRUJA's Automation & Handling technology that is being contributed to the Joint Venture is well proven in the display industry and well known for its outstanding reliability, capable of handling more than 15,000 substrates annually per display manufacturing line with the highest uptime and minimum substrate loss through breakage.

A major Asian OLED display maker is currently evaluating OVPD (Organic Vapor Phase Deposition) based technology together with APEVA: A Gen1-size prototype has been operating at the customer's facility for well over a year. A larger-scale Gen2-size prototype is currently being installed in the customer facility. In the event of the successful qualification of the equipment, a customer order for a first production size OVPD deposition chamber is expected to be received in 2019.

Based on the patented STExS (Short Thermal Exposure Source) and OVPD deposition technologies, APEVA offers distinct advantages over the incumbent VTE technology: it maintains the delicate organic materials' integrity by flash evaporation only at the point of use, leading to longer lifetimes of OLED panel displays. Furthermore, it allows for a significantly reduced footprint in addition to a much reduced cost of ownership through the ability to co-deposit organic materials and as well as through a significantly increased efficiency in material usage.

A presentation on the transaction is available here.


Contact:

Guido Pickert
Investor Relations and Corporate Communications
T: +49 (2407) 9030-444
F: +49 (2407) 9030-445
M: invest@aixtron.com


About AIXTRON
AIXTRON SE is a leading provider of deposition equipment to the semiconductor industry. The Company was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Herzogenrath (near Aachen), Germany, with subsidiaries and sales offices in Asia, United States and in Europe. AIXTRON's technology solutions are used by a diverse range of customers worldwide to build advanced components for electronic and opto-electronic applications based on compound or organic semiconductor materials. Such components are used in a broad range of innovative applications, technologies and industries. These include Laser and LED applications, display technologies, data transmission, SiC and GaN power management and conversion, communication, signaling and lighting as well as a range of other leading-edge applications.

For further information on AIXTRON (FSE: AIXA, ISIN DE000A0WMPJ6) please visit our website at: www.aixtron.com.


About IRUJA
IRUJA is the market leader for Sputtering Systems to the Korean and Chinese OLED display industry with more than 10 years of experience and a ~90% market share. IRUJA is well known for the reliability of its systems, especially the stability of its software stack and automation systems as well as for its customer centricity and fast project execution. IRUJA is a privately held company with an annual revenue of EUR 200 million (FY 2017) and 220 employees (Dec. 2017).


Forward-Looking Statements
This document may contain forward-looking statements regarding the business, results of operations, financial condition and earnings outlook of AIXTRON. These statements may be identified by words such as "may", "will", "expect", "anticipate", "contemplate", "intend", "plan", "believe", "continue" and "estimate" and variations of such words or similar expressions. These forward-looking statements are based on our current assessments, expectations and assumptions, of which many are beyond control of AIXTRON, and are subject to risks and uncertainties. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Should these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying expectations not occur or assumptions prove incorrect, actual results, performance or achievements of AIXTRON may materially vary from those described explicitly or implicitly in the relevant forward-looking statement. This could result from a variety of factors, such as actual customer orders received by AIXTRON, the level of demand for deposition technology in the market, the timing of final acceptance of products by customers, the condition of financial markets and access to financing for AIXTRON, general conditions in the market for deposition plants and macroeconomic conditions, cancellations, rescheduling or delays in product shipments, production capacity constraints, extended sales and qualification cycles, difficulties in the production process, the general development in the semi-conductor industry, increased competition, fluctuations in exchange rates, availability of public funding, fluctuations and/or changes in interest rates, delays in developing and marketing new products, a deterioration of the general economic situation and any other factors discussed in any reports or other announcements , in particular in the chapter Risks in the Annual Report, filed by AIXTRON. Any forward-looking statements contained in this document are based on current expectations and projections of the executive board based on information available the date hereof. AIXTRON undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless expressly required to do so by law.

This document is an English language translation of a document in German language. In case of discrepancies, the German language document shall prevail and shall be the valid version.

 

 

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