Israel-headquartered Camtek Ltd. will acquire the FRT Metrology business of FormFactor, Inc. for US$100 million in cash. This acquisition will leverage both companies’ advanced technologies of advanced packaging and silicon carbide. Particularly, these fields require new inspection and metrology steps in the semiconductor manufacturing processes.

FRT is a leading supplier of high-precision metrology solutions for the advanced packaging and silicon carbide markets. It has its headquarters in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany. Meanwhile, Camtek is a market leader in inspection and 3D metrology in the semiconductor industry. Camtek, with the addition of FRT’s unique hybrid multi-sensor SurfaceSens™ technology, will be able to provide customers with broader and more comprehensive solutions for inspection and metrology.

“We welcome FRT and its employees to the Camtek family,” said Rafi Amit, Camtek’s CEO. “We expect this acquisition to solidify Camtek’s leading market position and contribute approximately 10% to the annual revenues in 2024 and be accretive within 12 months following the acquisition. Beyond the immediate financial contribution, we expect further synergies that will contribute to Camtek’s overall growth prospects in 2024 and beyond. We look forward to capturing a larger share of the unique growth opportunities ahead of us.”

Mike Slessor, FormFactor’s CEO, commented, “I’m extremely proud of the FRT team’s innovation and growth since FormFactor’s acquisition of this business in 2019. I would like to thank the team for the strong results they have delivered as part of the FormFactor family. I’m also excited for the opportunity of this team to leverage Camtek’s established scale and expertise in inspection and metrology to deliver the next stage of growth from this business.”

“FormFactor remains committed to developing and providing industry-leading test and measurement solutions for advanced packaging, helping enable the next phase of semiconductor innovation in applications like generative AI and co-packaged optics. We expect this transaction to maximize present and future FormFactor shareholder value by realizing a robust return on our investment while allowing us to focus our resources on strategic initiatives and industry-leading businesses where we have market leadership and significant scale,” Slessor added.

The transaction is expected to close in Q4 2023, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.