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On February 16, 2000, BOC Edwards announced an agreement to acquire privately held Kachina Semiconductor Services, a Phoenix, Arizona, provider of semiconductor process-tool component and chamber-part cleaning. The price and other financial terms were not disclosed. BOC Group filings later confirm that the acquisition closed in July 2000, making this a completed historical transaction rather than a current takeover proposal.
What BOC Edwards announced in February 2000
BOC Edwards, based in Wilmington, Massachusetts, said it would acquire Kachina Semiconductor Services of Phoenix, subject to customary conditions and approvals. The contemporaneous EE Times report and Laboratory Network coverage stated that the transaction terms were undisclosed.
The announcement described Kachina as a specialist in cleaning semiconductor process-tool components. It was not a semiconductor-fabrication-equipment manufacturer. Its business centered on managing, cleaning and refurbishing parts used inside wafer-fabrication tools.
What Kachina’s services involved
Process-tool and chamber-part cleaning
Kachina cleaned process-tool chambers and parts removed from semiconductor manufacturing equipment. Its services used selected chemical and electrochemical processes intended to control contamination and restore components for further use.
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Why semiconductor cleaning is specialized
In a fab, particles, mobile ions and residual outgassing can affect process control and wafer yields. The contemporaneous descriptions emphasized low particle and mobile-ion levels and low residual outgassing, while presenting the work as a way to extend component life. Those statements describe the company’s technology and commercial rationale; the cited reports do not provide independent test data.
Why BOC Edwards wanted Kachina
The strategic logic was to broaden BOC Edwards’ semiconductor-services platform. Kachina’s component-cleaning expertise complemented BOC Edwards’ carbon-dioxide parts-cleaning capability and its FabMaX on-site service infrastructure. FabMaX is best understood here as a BOC Edwards semiconductor on-site-services operation, not as a separately established corporation.
BOC Edwards already supplied services and products associated with semiconductor fabs, including gases, vacuum, abatement and chemical-management activities. Adding specialized parts cleaning allowed the company to offer a wider set of outsourced and on-site support options. At announcement, management also pointed to the possibility of expanding the service internationally; later filings document facilities outside the United States.
Did the acquisition close?
Yes. The February announcement used prospective language, but a BOC Group SEC filing states that BOC Edwards completed the Kachina acquisition in July 2000.
What happened to the operation after closing?
U.S. facilities
BOC filings describe a Phoenix facility and divisional headquarters established after the acquisition, followed by a facility in Portland, Oregon. The filings present Kachina as a continuing semiconductor process-tool component-management activity within BOC Edwards during the early 2000s.
International expansion
Additional facilities were opened in France and China during 2002, according to BOC’s filings. The 2003 filing and 2004 filing support the broader picture of geographic expansion, but they do not establish every site’s staffing, revenue or operating results.
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What happened in 2007?
On August 28, 2007, Applied Materials announced an agreement to acquire certain Kachina assets from BOC Edwards. This was narrower than the 2000 transaction, which was announced as an acquisition of Kachina Semiconductor Services.
Applied identified operations in Austin, Texas; Phoenix, Arizona; and Hillsboro, Oregon, along with on-site service operations in Israel, Ireland and Virginia. The Applied Materials announcement did not disclose the consideration and did not say that every Kachina asset or location transferred. It said the assets would support Applied Global Services.
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How the ownership record should be read
The documented sequence is an acquisition by BOC Edwards in 2000, followed by a partial asset transfer to Applied Materials in 2007. A later Edwards Group filing says Kachina was among non-core assets disposed of during a restructuring program completed by 2010. That statement supports a broad disposal history, not a claim that the entire Kachina business changed hands in one identifiable 2010 sale.
Viewed together, the record suggests that Kachina was strategically valuable as part of a larger semiconductor-services platform, while eventually becoming non-core to the Edwards organization. That is an inference from the later ownership and disposal record, not a disclosed explanation of management’s complete decision process.
What the public record does not disclose
- Purchase price, valuation or payment structure for the 2000 acquisition.
- Kachina’s acquisition-date revenue, profitability or employee count.
- The complete list of closing conditions and approvals.
- The full scope and consideration of Applied Materials’ 2007 asset purchase.
- The post-2010 operating identity of every Kachina facility and employee.
BOC Edwards–Kachina timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| February 16, 2000 | BOC Edwards announces an agreement to acquire Phoenix-based Kachina Semiconductor Services; terms are undisclosed. |
| July 2000 | BOC Edwards completes the acquisition, according to a BOC Group filing. |
| 2000–2002 | Phoenix and Portland operations are documented, followed by facilities in France and China during 2002. |
| August 28, 2007 | Applied Materials announces an agreement to acquire certain Kachina assets from BOC Edwards, including specified U.S. and on-site-service operations. |
| By 2010 | Edwards reports that Kachina was among non-core assets disposed of during a restructuring program completed by that year. |
The Bottom Line
BOC Edwards’ Kachina deal was announced on February 16, 2000 and completed in July 2000. It brought a Phoenix specialist in semiconductor process-tool component cleaning into BOC Edwards’ FabMaX-centered services strategy. Applied Materials later acquired certain, not necessarily all, Kachina assets in 2007, while Edwards’ filings place Kachina among non-core assets disposed of by 2010.
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