About Featured Expert: Axcelis Technologies

Axcelis Technologies are global industry experts in ion implantation equipment, semiconductor process engineering and lifecycle support for advanced wafer manufacturing. The company designs, develops and manufactures systems used to introduce controlled dopants and other species into semiconductor wafers. Implant dose, energy, depth and angle help establish the electrical characteristics of the finished device, while particle and metallic-contamination control remain essential to process stability across advanced and mature semiconductor manufacturing.

Axcelis has built its current equipment strategy around the Purion platform, a common single-wafer architecture supporting high-current, medium-energy, mid-current and high-energy implantation. That shared foundation allows fabs to maintain greater commonality across equipment controls, wafer handling and operating practices while selecting the beamline and energy configuration required for the individual process. This matters because the implant challenge changes significantly by device type. Advanced logic may place greater emphasis on angle control and contamination performance. Memory processes can require different energy and dose combinations. Image sensors may depend upon deep implants and extremely low metal contamination, while power devices introduce their own requirements for wafer material, temperature, thickness and dopant species.

Axcelis Technologies - Featured Expert Logo - Semiconductor Industry MonthlyThe Purion platform is designed to address those differences without forcing every application onto a separate equipment architecture. At high current, the Purion H6 uses a scanned spot-beam design with independent control of implant dose and angle, together with magnetic and electrostatic filtration for contamination management. The system was introduced in February 2026 as the newest generation of the company’s high-current platform.

Mid-current and medium-energy configurations extend that flexibility into processes requiring a different balance of dose, precision and beam energy. The Purion M supports a broad range of mid-current applications, while selected heated-implant configurations are used for silicon-carbide processing. Axcelis also offers the Purion H200 for applications requiring high-current performance at medium energies.

For deeper implant profiles, the Purion XE family uses radio-frequency linear-accelerator technology. Within that family, the XEmax supports energies of up to 15 MeV for selected image-sensor and other ultra-high-energy processes. These capabilities are especially relevant where the final device structure depends upon dopants being placed well below the wafer surface.

Power semiconductors have become another important area of Axcelis expertise. The Purion Power Series+ supports silicon and silicon-carbide devices across different wafer sizes, beam-current ranges and implant temperatures. This gives manufacturers a broader set of implantation options for power-device processes without leaving the common Purion operating environment. That same platform approach extends across DRAM, NAND, advanced logic, analog, radio-frequency, MEMS, image-sensor and mature-node production. Axcelis develops the beamline, energy, temperature and wafer-handling configuration around the actual process requirement rather than applying one fixed implant solution to every device category.

Lifecycle support remains an important part of the company’s model. Axcelis provides process support, equipment upgrades, technical training, spare parts and field service for current Purion systems and its established installed equipment base. This allows fabs to support both new process introductions and long-running production environments through the same broader supplier relationship.

Typical applications for Axcelis technologies include advanced logic, DRAM and NAND memory, CMOS image sensors, analog and radio-frequency devices, mature-process integrated circuits, silicon power devices, silicon-carbide power semiconductors and materials-modification processes.

Headquartered in Beverly, Massachusetts, Axcelis supports semiconductor manufacturers through engineering, applications, manufacturing and service operations across the United States, Europe and Asia. To learn more about Axcelis Technologies and its ion implantation systems, please click here.

(Editor’s Note: All trademarks mentioned in this article, including company names, product names, and logos, are the property of their respective owners. Use of these trademarks is for informational purposes only and does not imply any endorsement.)

Molly Bakewell Chamberlin
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