F&S Bondtec Semiconductor has now been in business for 30 years and celebrated this anniversary in style at its own premises in Braunau am Inn, Austria.
In addition to a review of the company history and an overview of the company data and products, a company tour was also offered before the evening celebration. F&S Bondtec Semiconductor GmbH covers the wire bonder and bond tester segment worldwide and offers the widest range of production and test equipment. Only F&S Bondtec offers solutions that combine all wire bonding processes and additionally all test methods on one machine base. The company is also an innovation leader in the field of fully automated bond testing.
Opportunity seized - milestone after milestone with many innovations
Siegfried Seidl, CEO of F&S Bondtec, welcomed the guests and thanked everyone, because without them there would be no such continuous success story. He then went into the history of the company, which was founded in 1994, noting: "In every crisis there is an opportunity." This was also the case back then, when Dr. F. Farassat and Dipl.-Ing. S. Kazemi, two pioneers of wire bonding, founded F&S Bondtec Austria. The first employees were three bond specialists from the Braunau semiconductor plant of AEG-Telefunken, which had been relocated to East Asia. They were initially suppliers for F&S Delvotec in Germany. At that time, the company was based at the Techno-Z in Braunau am Inn.
Siegfried Seidl welcoming the guests
Visitors to the anniversary celebration at F&S Bondtec
Recently expanded company building
The first in-house wire bonder, the Series 54, was introduced back in 1996. Due to the great success of the new product generation and the resulting increase in the number of employees, the need for space became ever greater. In 2001, the company moved into the newly built company building with around 20 employees. The 5600 product series, which was characterized by its extremely high flexibility, was expanded in 2006. This device was now no longer just a bond tester, but stood out as the world's only wire bonder and wire bond tester 56XX. The success continued unabated and F&S Bondtec Austria grew steadily under the management of Siegfried Seidl and his team. In 2011, almost 40 employees were working in the now expanded building. The functionality of the microchips produced must be guaranteed for critical applications. This is why the 5600C tester was created in 2015 as an extension to the existing 56XX series, which is still a cash cow today. This was the Braunau team's first step out of research and development and into the field of series production. At the same time, a completely new product generation was created with the 58XX. In 2015, Siegfried Seidl became the sole owner of the company, which has been trading as F&S Bondtec Semiconductor ever since. 2015 saw the market launch of the LAB tester. The MBU 51 series followed in 2018 and the 86XX series in 2021. The fact that the company invests a great deal in research is paying off. F&S Bondtec Semiconductor already has 13 patents granted or pending. Several thousand wire bonders and bond testers have left the factory since it was founded and are in use in many laboratories, development departments, pilot production lines and customer production facilities around the world. And the success story continues. Only recently, the company building was extended again, with a focus on sustainability and the use of wood as a building material.
Miriam Seidl listed facts and success factorsThisyear, the management of F&S Bondtec was expanded: since the turn of the year, Miriam Seidl has been responsible for commercial management as CFO and Johann Enthammer is responsible for technical management as CTO. Siegfried Seidl is still CEO. F&S Bondtec intends to remain true to its strategy and continue to grow in the future thanks to its long-standing, loyal customer relationships.
Sustainability is important
Miriam Seidl listed the current company data. With around 50 employees, an annual turnover of €10 million is generated on an area of around 2500 m². A total of over 2500 machines have already been delivered to 1360 customers. 99% are exported worldwide, 49% of them to Europe. Over 10 different processes and applications can be realized with the wire bonders and bond testers.
The value index, i.e. the company DNA of F&S Bondtec on which its success is based, includes appreciation, cohesion, innovation, sustainability and consistency. In addition, F&S Bondtec has a young workforce with an average age of 37.8 years and a high proportion of women (around one third).
As Dr. F. Farassat said in his subsequent welcoming address, he recognized at the time how good the people were. Siegfried Seidl developed everything. Many others tried the bonding technique, but only a few were successful. Johann Enthammer presented the product range, listing the machines for the various processes and applications and talking about some new machine developments. "What is bonding?" asked Dr. Josef Sedlmair, vividly demonstrating products that everyone knows and that contain bond connections, such as pacemakers and hearing aids. F&S Bondtec has already received a number of awards for its products. On the occasion of the company's anniversary, Siegfried Seidl was awarded the silver business medal by the WKO for his achievements.
The speeches were followed by tours of the company in small groups, during which visitors were able to see how the products are developed and assembled.
A bonder in the demo room was even set up so that anyone who wanted to could use it to make wire bond connections themselves. For many visitors, this was their first time and therefore a special experience, as was the evening event that followed.
Dr. F. Farassat during his welcome address
Dr. Josef Sedlmair during his short presentation
Klemens Steidl, WKO Braunau, presented the award to Siegfried Seidl
