Ultra Clean Holdings, Inc. was founded in November 2002 for the purpose of
acquiring Ultra Clean Technology Systems and Services, Inc. a US-based company
founded in 1991 by Mitsubishi Corporation and operated as a subsidiary of Mitsubishi.
UCT became a publicly traded company in March 2004. In 2006, we acquired Sieger
Engineering, Inc. to better position ourselves as a subsystem supplier primarily
to the semiconductor and display capital equipment industries. Sieger Engineering
merged into Ultra Clean Technology Systems and Service, Inc. in July of 2016.
To facilitate operations in Asia, Ultra Clean Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd
(“UCTS”) and Ultra Clean Micro-Electronics Equipment (Shanghai)
Co., Ltd. (“UCME”) were established in China in 2005 and 2007, respectively,
and Ultra Clean Asia Pacific, Pte, Ltd. was established in Singapore in 2008.
UCTS merged into UCME in December of 2015. Our July 2012 acquisition of American
Integration Technologies LLC (“AIT”) added to our existing customer
base in the semiconductor and medical spaces and provided additional manufacturing
capabilities. In 2014, we launched Prototype Asia, our 3D printing business
in Singapore, to develop additive manufacturing capabilities for our customer
base. In February 2015, we acquired Marchi Thermal Systems, Inc. (“Marchi”)
and in July 2015, we acquired MICONEX s.r.o (“Miconex”), both privately
held companies with a majority of their sales in the semiconductor market. Marchi
designs and manufactures specialty heaters, thermocouples and temperature controllers,
delivering flexible heating elements and thermal solutions to our customers.
The Company believes heaters are increasingly critical in equipment design for
the most advanced semiconductor nodes. Miconex is a provider of advanced precision
fabrication of plastics that has expanded our capabilities with existing customers.
Separately, in November 2016, we determined to seek to dispose of a portion
of our 3D printing business, consistent with our strategy to focus on producing
product tools for the semiconductor and display capital equipment industries.
We are a global leader in the design, engineering, and manufacture of production
tools, modules and subsystems for the semiconductor and display capital equipment
industries. We provide our customers specialized engineering and manufacturing
solutions for these highly complex, highly configurable, limited volume applications.
In addition, we routinely handle major volume and design changes during the
manufacturing process and provide equipment manufacturers flexibility when responding
to dynamic market changes. We enable them to realize lower manufacturing costs
and reduced design-to-delivery cycle times while maintaining high quality standards.
We provide our customers with broad solutions that combine our expertise in
design, assembly, test and component characterization. Our customers value our
highly flexible global manufacturing operations, our excellence in quality control
and our scale and financial stability. Our global footprint helps us drive down
total manufacturing costs, and reduce design-to-delivery cycle times while maintaining
high quality standards for our customers. We believe these characteristics help
us to provide global solutions for our customers’ product demands.
Our focus is on providing specialized engineering and manufacturing solutions
for highly complex, highly configurable, limited volume systems. We enable our
customers to realize lower manufacturing costs and reduced design-to-delivery
cycle times while maintaining high quality standards. We offer our customers:
A vertically integrated solution for complex and highly configurable systems.
We provide our original equipment manufacturing (OEM) customers a broad outsourced
solution for the development, design, component sourcing, prototyping, engineering,
manufacturing and testing of advanced systems. We utilize our machining, sheet
metal, and frame fabrication capabilities with highly specialized engineering,
global supply chain management, and assembly capabilities to produce high performance
products that are customized to meet the needs of our customers, as well as
their respective end users. We minimize the overall number of suppliers and
manage our global supply chain logistics to reduce inventory levels that our
customers would otherwise be required to manage.
Subsystem manufacturing. Our experience with the demanding requirements in
semiconductor equipment manufacturing has enabled us to grow from primarily
supplying gas delivery modules to being a leading developer and supplier of
other critical modules and subsystems. These assemblies include chemical and
fluid delivery modules, wafer transport, and process modules.
Improved design-to-delivery cycle times. Our strong relationships with our
customers and familiarity with their product requirements and the ever changing
needs of their customer base help us reduce their design-to-delivery cycle times.
We seek to optimize our supply chain management, design and manufacturing coordination
and controls to respond rapidly to order requests, enabling us to decrease design-to-delivery
cycle times for our customers. Because our engineers work closely with our customers’
engineers and understand the fabrication, assembly and testing of their products,
we often can improve their design for manufacturability, thereby improving their
cost, quality and consistency.
Component neutral design and manufacturing. We do not manufacture components
such as mass flow controllers and valves which are selected based on manufacturer
published specifications. Our component neutral position enables us to recommend
components on the basis of technology, performance and cost and to optimize
our customers’ overall designs based on these criteria. Furthermore, our
neutral approach allows us to maintain close relationships with a wide range
of component suppliers.
Component testing capabilities. We utilize our technical expertise to test
and characterize key components and subsystems. We have made significant investments
in advanced analytical and automated test equipment, enabling us to test and
qualify key components. We can perform diagnostic tests, design verifications
and failure analyses for our customers and suppliers. Our analytical and testing
capabilities of supplier components provide us the ability to recommend to our
customers a wide range of appropriate component and design choices for their
products.
Increased integration with OEMs through local presence. Our local presence
in close proximity to the facilities of most of our OEM customers enables us
to remain closely integrated with their design, development and implementation
teams. This level of integration enables us to respond quickly and efficiently
to customer changes and requests.
4
Precision machining capabilities. We manufacture high quality, precision machined
parts using equipment capable of efficiently providing complex parts with exacting
tolerances. Our diverse precision fabrication equipment enables us to manufacture
a broad range of machined parts using a wide range of materials, from exotic
metals to high purity plastics. Our manufacturing capabilities include horizontal
and vertical milling, turning, welding and joining, among others. We own and
operate advanced machining and fabrication systems at multiple sites in the
U.S., Europe and Asia.
Precision frame fabrication. We design and manufacture frames using tubing
or sheet metal in all customary sizes with exacting standards to meet or exceed
our customers’ needs. We utilize over 25 years of experience in the fabrication
of complex frames to provide a cost competitive edge in our vertical integration
model. Many of our customers require frames that are powder coated and in 2016,
we added this capability to our Chandler, Arizona frame fabrication facility.
Precision sheet metal fabrication. Our ability to provide broad sheet metal
solutions for our customers enables us to support prototype to volume production,
from brackets to sheet metal frames, and from structural to high quality cosmetic
finishing of the final product. Our automated equipment and design capabilities
allow us to develop accurate prototype and final production products for our
customers.
Custom thermal control. Our acquisition of Marchi has enabled us to design
and manufacture heaters, sensors, and controllers for precise temperature control.
These products are complementary to our gas delivery systems products.
32.18 %