Suss Microtec

1949 to 1980: Founding years and entry into semiconductor industry

On April 1, 1949, then 47-year-old Karl Süss founded Karl Süss KG and, as a sales representative for Bavaria, took over the distribution of optical devices (microscopes, cameras, and laboratory equipment) from Ernst Leitz GmbH. With increasing technical expertise, the company evolved from a pure sales company with five employees to a contract manufacturer.

In 1963, Süss received a commission from Siemens to develop a simple photolithography device. This commission involved small measuring tables with stereo microscopes bonded together. For Siemens, Süss developed the prototype of the first mask aligner MJB3, a mask alignment exposure tool for photolithography. This commission marked the company’s first step into the semiconductor industry, which later became its core market. In 1968, the company moved its production and 30 employees to Garching.

With the development of the semiconductor industry, Süss began manufacturing diamond scribers and spin coaters. In 1974, the first mask aligner enabling micrometer-precise double-sided exposure was developed at Süss. The company, whose name already stood for photolithography in the research and development sector, now also focused on customers from the manufacturing industry. In 1975, the MJB55 became the first mask aligner developed for mass production.

Research and Development

The company's founder already maintained a close exchange with science. Suss Microtec is expanding its efforts in the area of research and development in order to increase innovation. In addition to lively development activities and intensive cooperation with research institutes and universities, all processes are geared to a high development speed and efficiency in order to improve the added value for users. Suss Microtec cooperates with various research organizations worldwide.

Products

Suss Microtec supplies a range of equipment for semiconductor manufacturing. This includes coaters and developers, inkjet printers, mask aligners, UV projection scanners, imprint lithography equipment, metrology systems, wafer bonders, and photomask systems.

The company offers, among other things, equipment and processes for temporary wafer bonding, which is used in the production of microchips needed for AI applications. Suss Microtec is also part of the supply chain of Nvidia (as of 2024). In 2024, Joachim Hofer wrote in the Handelsblatt that Nvidia relies on high-performance semiconductors with High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) as an "indispensable complement" to its graphics processors (GPUs). Some of the systems used to produce these HBM chips originate from Suss Microtec.

Key end-use applications for the sensors and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) whose manufacturers are supplied by Suss Microtec are consumer electronics (consumer electronics, household appliances, cell phones, cameras, etc.), mechanical engineering, control, measurement and regulation technology, processors, laboratory technology, medical technology, automotive, aerospace and security applications.