MKS Instruments Corporate Headquarters

MKS Instruments, Inc. is a global provider of instruments, subsystems and process control solutions that measure, control, power, monitor and analyze critical parameters of advanced manufacturing processes to improve process performance and productivity. Our products are derived from our core competencies in pressure measurement and control, materials delivery, gas composition analysis, electrostatic charge management, control and information technology, power and reactive gas generation, and vacuum technology. Our primary served markets are manufacturers of capital equipment for semiconductor devices, and for other thin film applications including flat panel displays, solar cells, data storage media, and other advanced coatings. We also leverage our technology in other markets with advanced manufacturing applications including medical equipment, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and energy generation and environmental monitoring.

MKS’s Best in Class products and technologies provide infrastructure to:

– Manage flow rates of gases entering and exiting the process chamber
– Measure and control mixture and pressure of gases within the process
– Analyze and monitor gas composition
– Isolate the process environment from the outside environment
– Deliver plasma source power to the process
– Create reactive gases for processing or for chamber cleaning
– Facilitate digital communications among sensors, subsystems, and control systems
– Manage electrostatic discharge
– Analyze and monitor feed, exhaust and stack gases
– Calibrate instrumentation to ensure process repeatability
– Combine products into application-specific subsystems

MKS products are respected around the world for their accuracy, stability and repeatability.
These characteristics enable our customers to replicate their processes from tool to tool, from factory to factory and from country to country.

Instruments & Control Systems Product Group
This group manufactures a wide range of products in the areas of Pressure Measurement & Control, Flow Measurement & Control, Leak Detection, Calibration, Gas Analysis, and Control & Information Technologies.

MKS Pressure Measurement & Control Products located in Andover, Massachusetts provides complete solutions for your process measurement and control requirements. From Baratron® process capacitance manometers and gas delivery pressure transducers to pressure control subsystems, MKS supplies equipment that is designed and built to work together. Baratron, a trade name for MKS Capacitance Manometers, is known throughout the world by researchers and process engineers who have used hundreds of thousands of these instruments produced since 1961. (Most are still in use today.) Whenever a high-resolution pressure measurement must be made, ranging from two hundred times to one-billionth of atmospheric pressure, a Baratron measurement instrument usually gets selected. Whether the pressure measurement is differential, gage or absolute, and especially when the measurement must be independent of gas composition, the Baratron measurement instrument will meet your needs.

MKS’s line of ultraclean pressure transducers for gas delivery systems utilizes the MKS Baratron capacitance diaphragm technology. These transducers provide a much wider range, better stability and superior accuracy than conventional strain gage devices.

MKS also offers a wide variety of analog and digital automatic pressure control instruments and valves. The controllers range from simple analog manual tuning units to adaptive digital signal processing systems. They control pressure upstream and downstream of your process. The valves in these control loops are available in many sizes and configurations.

MKS Flow Measurement & Control Products in Methuen, Massachusetts manufactures Mass-Flo® and ALTA™ gas phase mass flow meters and controllers; products for the precise delivery of gases, vapor, and liquids; and application-specific integrated solutions to lower your cost, reduce complexity, increase performance and improve process productivity.

MKS mass flow meters and controllers set the highest standards for the electronic measurement and control of gas flow in ranges from 1 sccm to 200 slm. The MKS patented sensing techniques for both thermal and pressure-based flow controls ensure excellent accuracy, repeatability and reliability. Mass flow meters and controllers are available in a broad range of configurations, including all-metal, true-digital (DeviceNet™, Profibus, RS485) and pressure insensitive designs.

MKS’s gas, vapor and liquid delivery products are based on technologies such as thermal conductivity, differential pressure measurement and direct liquid injection. These products allow for the precise control of inert, corrosive or toxic gases and for the control of low vapor pressure gases or water vapor.

Our delivery subsystems can be used with many delicate advanced materials in liquid or dissolved solid form where conventional thermal-based flow technology cannot be applied. New applications in semiconductor processing and other advanced coatings are begin developed with the help of these subsystems. Call us if you have an application with a new material and need to consider a custom-tailored delivery subsystem.

MKS PICO® leak detectors, manufactured in Methuen, Massachusetts, are portable mass spec-based helium leak detectors which are the smallest and lightest in the world. Weighing less than 17 pounds, the PICO series of sniffing-style and vacuum leak detectors set a new standard for portable leak detection.

A full line of CalStand® calibration systems, used by many ISO 9000 Certified companies to ensure that they continue to meet these International Quality Standards, are manufactured in Methuen, Massachusetts. You can choose from portable pressure calibrators and portable flow calibrators for ease of movement around the fab, or a system to meet the needs of your metrology laboratory. In addition, MKS offers calibration services at a number of locations around the world to ensure the quality and accuracy of vacuum, pressure and flow instruments.

MKS provides sophisticated measurement technologies to monitor and control advanced manufacturing processes in various industries. MKS Spectra™ products (formerly Spectra International) include component residual gas analyzers (RGAs), analytical equipment and in situ process monitoring instruments. All products are manufactured in Crewe, U.K. and are sold as fully integrated, application-specific packages. MKS’s commitment to in situ sensors includes full on-site global product support with guaranteed Return On Investment (ROI). MKS also designs and manufactures an advanced range of On-Line™ (formerly On-Line Technologies) gas analysis products based on proprietary Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectrometry for the continuous monitoring of process feed, exhaust and stack gases.

The MKS Control & Information Technologies group in San Jose, California enables customers to more completely monitor and analyze, and more precisely control, the process chamber environment by integrating critical process components, technologies and data around the process chamber. Our process controllers collect data on the process chamber environment by connecting through digital process control network products to the instruments, components and subsystems surrounding the chamber. With the addition of sophisticated connectivity hardware and software, MKS can enable the distribution of that process data in real time across the factory network.

The Control & Information Technology group is actually comprised of three product groups that were acquired by MKS over the past few years: DIP, Inc. (digital control network products), TeNTA Technology, Ltd. (modular, computer-based process control systems that control semiconductor manufacturing equipment), and IPC Fab Automation GmbH (web-based hardware and software that enable e-diagnostics and APC for advanced manufacturing processes).

Our digital control network products are used in the semiconductor, commercial vehicle, oil and gas and chemical processing industries, and consist of a wide range of established hardware and software solutions based on CAN technology. These products facilitate the communications among digital process sensors, control subsystems and the host computer system. Our modular, computer-based process control systems feature compact size, flexible open architectures, and a real-time, Java™-based embedded control platform to enable manufacturing equipment with web connectivity and e-diagnostics. Our web-based hardware and software solutions provide for more than one interface from the process tool to the factory network, thereby enabling local and remote users to monitor not only tool scheduling but also various parameters of tool operating performance. Our connectivity hardware incorporates intelligent multiplexing software that eliminates communication bottlenecks by enabling and prioritizing user access to multiple tool applications.

Vacuum Products Group
MKS HPS® Products in Boulder, Colorado manufactures a complete range of vacuum components, valves and gauges. Between the process tool and the scrubber, our vacuum products offer solutions to system contamination, system downtime, space constraints and outgassing. HPS components are used in medium to high vacuum systems, downstream from the process chamber, where leak integrity and cleanliness are critical to good process results. Our series of vacuum foreline heaters and traps prevent the build-up of condensable gases that could be deposited near the process chamber and that clog pumping lines. With precise control of the temperature in the vacuum line, condensates are directed to traps that are designed to protect the downstream pumping systems.

To help process equipment and maintenance engineers optimize the productivity of their process tools, MKS combines individual components and instruments into integrated modules to provide specific process functions that require multiple components working together. HPS Integrated Component Subsystems™ are tailored for a variety of different applications and can solve specific tool challenges to bring about increased yield, throughput and uptime; from instruments that combine flow measurement and pressure control to complete vacuum foreline subsystems.

HPS vacuum gauges are well known in applications requiring indirect pressure measurement throughout the vacuum range. These compact gauges and transducers utilize Pirani, convection Pirani, piezo, hot cathode, cold cathode and MEMS-based multi-sensor technologies.

HPS Products also offers a line of clamp fittings and buttweld components designed and manufactured for the biotechnology and pharmaceutical processing industries. These components can be used in any liquid flow process or high purity utility application where cleanability, sterility, dimensional integrity, and materials of construction are critical.

Power & Reactive Gas Products Group
MKS in Wilmington, Massachusetts manufactures innovative solutions for plasma, power, and reactive gases. In 2001, MKS acquired ASTeX, Applied Science & Technology, who was a world leader in innovative solutions for plasma, power, reactive gases and process systems. Now a part of the MKS Power & Reactive Gas Products Group, the ASTeX® extensive product portfolio includes remote plasma sources and subsystems such as the ASTRON® Remote Plasma Source; the Semozon® and Liquozon® Ozone generators for CVD and advanced cleaning applications; and microwave plasma sources and subsystems. Products are sold as individual components or as complete, integrated turnkey systems that meet stringent customer requirements.

In 2002, MKS acquired the ENI division of Emerson Electric, a leading supplier of solid-state radio frequency (RF) and direct current (DC) plasma power supplies, matching networks and instrumentation for the semiconductor and thin-film processing industries. Located in Rochester, New York, the ENI® branch of the MKS Power & Reactive Gas Products Group manufactures RF power supplies for semiconductor and other thin film processing applications, and DC power supplies for IC, storage media, flat panel display manufacturing, and other coating applications. The ENI product portfolio also includes impedance matching networks and plasma metrology products.

Also a part of the Power & Reactive Gas Products Group, the MKS Medical Electronic Products in Colorado Springs, Colorado manufactures RF amplifiers for the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) market.

Ion Systems
In 2006, MKS acquired Ion Systems, a leading air ionization technology innovator that develops, manufactures, and markets system solutions to manage electrostatic discharge. Located in Alameda, California, MKS, Ion Systems group provides ionization products for the semiconductor, flat panel display, electronics, and industrial applications.

Vacuum Subsystem Design & Manufacturing
MKS Telvac Engineering, located in Telford, England, offers design and manufacturing outsourcing to OEMs in the thin-film, semiconductor and analytical instrument markets. Telvac adds a key capability to MKS’ European operations. Given the substantial growth in such fields as optical devices for data transmission and advanced analytical instruments for biotechnology, OEMs are looking to outsource much of their vacuum subsystem design and manufacture.

By providing our OEM customers with turnkey subassemblies, they can focus their valuable engineering time on their own core products’ performance and applications. Some of Telvac’s vacuum subsystems include UHV stainless steel precision assemblies, stainless steel and aluminum vacuum housings, vacuum chambers, and gas control panels.