Thin-film Equipment: Intevac is a leader in the design and development of high-productivity,
thin-film processing systems. Our production-proven platforms are designed for
high-volume manufacturing of substrates with precise thin-film properties, such
as the hard drive media, display cover panel (“DCP”), and solar
photovoltaic (“PV”) markets we serve currently.
Photonics: Intevac is a leading developer of advanced high-sensitivity digital
sensors, cameras and systems that primarily serve the defense industry. We are
the provider of integrated digital night vision imaging systems for the U.S.
military.
Intevac was incorporated in California in October 1990 and was reincorporated
in Delaware in 2007.
Hard Disk Drive Equipment Market
Intevac designs, manufactures, markets and services complex capital equipment
used to deposit thin films and lubricants onto substrates to produce magnetic
disks that are used in hard disk drives. Disk and disk drive manufacturers produce
magnetic disks in a sophisticated manufacturing process involving many steps,
including plating, annealing, polishing, texturing, sputtering, etching, stripping
and lubrication. Intevac believes its systems represent approximately 60% of
the installed capacity for disk sputtering worldwide. Intevac’s systems
are used by manufacturers of magnetic media such as Seagate Technology, Western
Digital, including its wholly-owned subsidiary HGST, Fuji Electric, and Showa
Denko.
Hard disk drives are a primary storage medium for digital data including nearline
“cloud” applications and are used in products and applications such
as personal computers (“PCs”), enterprise data storage, video players
and video game consoles. Intevac believes that hard disk drive media shipments
will continue to grow over time, driven by continued high growth rates in digitally-stored
data, by the slowing of areal density improvements, by the increase in demand
for nearline drives for cloud storage, an increasing tie ratio (for the average
number of hard disks per drive) and by new and emerging applications. In the
hard drive industry, the projected growth rates for digitally-stored data exceed
the rate of areal density improvements, at the same time as the tie ratio is
increasing, which results in demand for magnetic disks outpacing hard disk drive
units.
In recent years the hard disk drive business has been negatively impacted by
declining PC units, primarily caused as a result of the proliferation of tablets,
the transition to centralized storage, and the effects of uncertain macro-economic
environment conditions on demand for PCs from consumers and corporations. Although
the hard drive industry continues to expect growth in the enterprise data storage
market segment, the transition to centralized storage combined with the negative
growth in PC shipments has resulted in lower hard drive shipments in recent
years. However, Intevac continues to believe that long-term demand for hard
disks required for high capacity hard disk drives will increase, driven by growth
in demand for digital storage, declining growth rate in areal density improvements,
and increased information technology spending to support the transition to cloud
storage. The number of disk manufacturing systems needed to support this growth
as well as future technology transitions and improvements is expected to vary
from year to year depending on the factors noted above.
Intevac expects that hard disk drive manufacturers will extend their utilization
of planar perpendicular media with the introduction of Heat Assisted Magnetic
Recording (“HAMR”) expected within the next two to three years.
The first HAMR-based hard disk drives are expected to ship to the marketplace
in late 2016. Intevac believes that the leading manufacturers of magnetic media
are using Intevac Systems for HAMR development, creating a significant market
opportunity as HAMR is more widely adopted. Significant market penetration of
HAMR-based hard disk drives is expected to occur by 2018. Intevac believes that
the transition to HAMR will require disk manufacturers to upgrade their installed
base of equipment, which would result in increased demand for equipment technology
upgrades to be performed by Intevac.
Solar Market
Intevac designs, manufactures and markets capital equipment for the PV solar
manufacturing industry.
A solar cell (also called a PV cell) is a solid state device that converts the
energy of sunlight directly into electricity. Assemblies of cells are used to
make solar modules, also known as solar panels. Solar panels have broad-based
end market applications for utility-scale solar farms; integrated building PV
arrays for commercial, retail, and offices; residential rooftop; and for portable
devices.
The cost of electricity generated from solar energy, in many cases, remains
higher than that of electricity generated from traditional energy sources. However,
deployment of photovoltaics is gaining momentum on a worldwide scale, particularly
in Asia, North America and other regions, where solar PV is now increasingly
competitive with conventional energy sources. Grid parity, whereby solar PV
generates power at a levelized cost of electricity (“LCOE”) less
than or equal to the price of power purchased from the electrical grid, has
already been reached in about thirty countries. In countries or areas where
the cost of solar energy generation remains higher than traditional electricity
generation sources, some governments have implemented various tax credits and
other financial incentives to promote the growth in solar and in other alternative
energy sources. As a result of solar energy costs having favorably declined
due to the increased scale and improved manufacturing efficiencies spurred by
these incentive policies, many governments have reduced or are planning to reduce
their incentives for solar, a trend which is likely to continue. However, the
United States Investment Tax Credit (“ITC”) for solar which was
due to expire by the end of 2016, has been extended to continue the proliferation
of solar generated energy. As of the beginning of 2015 fourteen U.S. states
have reached grid parity, and an additional fourteen more are poised to reach
grid parity within this decade.
Display Cover Panel (“DCP”) Market
Intevac develops equipment to deposit optically transparent thin-films onto
DCPs typically found on consumer and automotive electronic products.
DCPs are found in products including smartphones, tablet PCs, wearable devices,
gaming systems, digital cameras, automotive infotainment systems and digital
signage.
The DCP is typically made of tempered glass, such as soda-lime or aluminosilicate,
or other materials such as sapphire. The primary function of the DCP is to provide
a clear protective interface to the display it protects. In many cases, the
DCP is treated with various coatings to enhance its protective performance as
well as for clarity, readability and touch sensitivity.
The types of coatings typically found on DCPs of electronic devices include:
Scratch Protection (“SP”) coatings, Anti-Reflection (“AR”)
coatings, and Anti-Finger (“AF”) coatings.
SP coatings generally consist of hard thin-films deposited onto the surface
of the DCP. Their primary function is to provide enhanced protection against
the incidence of scratch, but they can also provide greater breakage resistance.
SP coatings are gaining in popularity. SP coatings also improve the readability
of displays.
AR coatings enable greater light transmission though the DCP by reducing the
light reflected by the surface back to the user’s eye. This allows the
user to more easily read the display and reduces the required power needed to
display the image which results in extending the battery life. A significant
drawback to using AR coatings is their susceptibility to scratch. AR coatings
are typically soft and applied to the surface of the DCP. These coatings generally
scratch easily.
AF coatings provide water and oil protection for the surface of the DCP. This
coating which prevents fingerprints provides greater aesthetics as well as improving
readability. AF coatings allow for greater visual acuity when fingerprints are
not visible. The drawback to AF coatings is their relatively low resistance
to wear. The coating is soft and usually wears off within a few months of product
purchase.