Prepared to exploit new potential in Asia.

The markets in Asia continue to grow and Comet is on site – with enlarged manufacturing capacity, strengthened know-how, and a new Asia design center as well as sales and service close to local customers.

Following the successful ramping of its new production site in Malaysia, the Comet Group further expanded its presence in the Asia region in 2021. The goal: to even better serve the promising markets in Asia and to fully exploit its potential as one company with two technologies and common markets. This approach also created the best footing for continuing to respond flexibly to geopolitical changes and to new trends in the markets.

Boosting productivity thanks to volume production in Malaysia

After being set up in 2020, the new production facility in Malaysia was certified by our customers at the beginning of 2021. Since then, volume has been ramped to 20% of available capacity. With the further vigorous ramp-up of production to 60% of capacity by the end of 2022, we will be able to serve our customers more quickly in Asia and further raise productivity in the manufacture of impedance matching networks (also known as RF matches). The additional production capacity in Malaysia is to help Comet increase efficiency globally.

Faster development times for customers in Asia thanks to new design center in South Korea

The semiconductor industry is booming worldwide. In light of the recent pandemic experience, governments wish to see important products manufactured in their own region if possible. In Asia, too, there is a growing trend to rely on local product development and design to produce the ever more powerful microchips and do so more and more rapidly. Comet is addressing this need with its new design center in Suwon, South Korea.

“We have reinforced our research and development team in the area of radio frequency power applications in order to design our products locally and even more specifically for Asian customers than before,” says Yong Tae Kim, Country General Manager, Suwon, Korea. And with success: The geographic proximity to China, with only a small time difference, allows closer collaboration with Comet’s Chinese team and their customers, as well as with the key accounts in the semiconductor industry in Taiwan. This has helped the team to land its first design wins. “The new design center enables us to respond more quickly to the needs of our Asian customers and reduce the lead time for customization,” observes Kim, “which is a big advantage given our customers’ very tight development schedules.”

Space for product development and more at the new demonstration and training center in Taiwan

Taiwan is a hotspot for the semiconductor and electronics industry. The production of microchips requires not only advanced plasma control equipment, but also x-ray technology for quality inspection of the substrates and the interconnects in the increasingly complex chip structures. Electronic products such as camera lenses, batteries, smartphones and LED screens, for which Taiwanese electronics manufacturers are known worldwide, are tested for quality using x-rays, as are made-in-Taiwan components for electric cars.

To better serve the needs of local customers, Comet opened a small but sophisticated sales and service subsidiary in Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan’s Silicon Valley, in late 2020. Significantly, it also includes a training center and an x-ray demo lab. “The central location makes it easy for us to have direct contact with our local customers,” says Gordon Shyu, Country General Manager, Taiwan. “Often customers come to see us at an early stage of the collaboration and then we work together on product development in the demo center.”

Expanded offering for customers in Japan

Japanese customers have long valued the quality of Yxlon x-ray systems for non-destructive testing. In order to now also make the attractive range of Comet x-ray modules available to the broader NDT market in Japan, Comet strengthened its team and offering in Yokohama. But new opportunities could also arise in semiconductors, now that Japan has declared the growth of the semiconductor industry a “national project” amid the computer chip shortage. “The Japanese technology market is experiencing a renaissance that brings unprecedented opportunity. By acting as one company in Japan, we can make the most of this potential,” says Mineto Nakajo, Country General Manager, Japan. In mid-2021, Yxlon International was therefore renamed Comet Technologies Japan.

Organization in China now concentrated in Shanghai

In China, Comet has concentrated its resources in one location. The X-Ray Systems division site in Beijing was integrated into the cross-divisional Comet Group facility in Shanghai at the end of 2021. “With a central location and a shared infrastructure, we create synergies and can thus offer the local customers of all our divisions even faster and better solutions,” points out Andy Guo, General Manager, IXS China.

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