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SEZ Names International Industry Expert Glenn Gale Vice President of FEOL Cleaning Program
VILLACH, Austria, and ZURICH, Switzerland, June 27, 2005—The SEZ Group (SWX Swiss Exchange: SEZN), the market leader and premier innovator in single-wafer cleaning solutions for the semiconductor industry, today announced the appointment of Glenn Gale, Ph.D., to the newly created position of vice president, Front-end-of-line (FEOL) Cleaning Program. In his new role, Gale will be responsible for managing SEZ's worldwide FEOL cleaning processes, overseeing the introduction and implementation of the company's FEOL cleaning solutions within its global customer base, focusing on the immediate needs surrounding 65- and 45-nm technology. Gale will report directly to Ernst Gaulhofer, senior vice president, process applications, Advanced Process Management Division.
An international expert in semiconductor surface-preparation and cleaning technologies, Gale most recently served as chief technologist for the Cleaning Systems Business Unit of Tokyo Electron America, providing leadership and direction for the company's advanced cleaning technology. Prior to his role at TEL, Gale served as the project manager for surface preparation in the Front-end Processes Division of International SEMATECH, where he also played an integral role in the development of the Surface Preparation section of the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS). This was preceded by 10 years at International Business Machines (IBM) Corp., first as manufacturing equipment engineer in wet chemical spray and full-flow processors and then as manufacturing process engineer in silicon wafer cleaning and etching.
Gale holds a bachelor's and a master's degree in mechanical and industrial engineering, and a doctorate in mechanical and aeronautical engineering, with a minor in chemistry, from Clarkson University, Potsdam, N.Y. In addition, he is the recipient of several high-level honors, holds more than a dozen United States patents, and has been published numerous times.
"To consistently provide our global customer base with leading-edge cleaning solutions, SEZ recognizes that we must make sure our team comprises the world's leading experts within the surface preparation industry," said Kurt Lackenbucher, chief operations officer and executive vice president for the SEZ Group. "Glenn's extensive accomplishments within this industry and his renowned global reputation, coupled with SEZ's commitment to maintain strategic and operational leadership with every new hire, make him ideally suited to drive SEZ's single-wafer FEOL cleaning strategy."
Working closely with its customers, SEZ has identified the need for flexible processing approaches that can address customer requirements for FEOL applications while delivering all of the key benefits associated with single-wafer wet technology: shorter cycle times, more economic use of process chemicals and enhanced cost of ownership. SEZ has led the industry drive to shift back-end-of-line (BEOL) processing from batch to single-wafer processing, and is now moving to affect a similar transition in the FEOL space at all technology nodes, starting with the emerging 65- and 45-nm device generations, where customer needs are most pressing.
About SEZ Group
The SEZ Group is the leading provider of single-wafer, wet-processing solutions for the global semiconductor industry, with an installed base of over 900 tools. The company maintains operations in Asia-Pacific, Europe, Japan, and North America. SEZ Holding AG is traded on the SWX Swiss Exchange under the symbol SEZN. Additional information about the company is available on the Internet at www.sez.com.
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