ADE Corp. Consolidating Metrology Operations
ADE's Charlotte operations were acquired in 1992 from Eastman Kodak and serve as a research and development/manufacturing facility for optical surface inspection products serving ADE's semiconductor customers. All current operations will be transferred to the Company's headquarters in Westwood, MA and more than half of the 94 employees in Charlotte will be offered a relocation option.
The sales, service and support facilities in Milpitas will be expanded into an Applications Center for Disk Metrology supporting ADE Technologies, Inc. and ADE Phase Shift, Inc. The manufacturing operations currently located there will be relocated to the Company's recently renovated facilities in Newton, MA.
"Optical metrology and inspection are critical to our future growth in the semiconductor industry," said Robert C. Abbe, president and CEO of ADE. "As we continue to integrate more metrology onto common platforms with common software, it has become apparent that co-location of ADE's semiconductor metrology product lines will best meet our customers' needs for short-cycle development of a broad metrology product line based upon common components. Given the current conditions of the semiconductor equipment industry, this opportunity to consolidate our semiconductor operations in one location is timely."
ADE will be taking a charge of approximately $7 million over the period of consolidation for employee relocation, severance payments and other expenses associated with closing the Charlotte and Milpitas operations. The Company expects these consolidations to be completed by July 31, 1999.
For more information, call 781-467-3500.