In December of 1998 CVD Equipment Corporation (CVD) purchased all assets of Stainless Design Corp., both tangible and intangible, including all intellectual property. This new company, STAINLESS DESIGN CONCEPTS (SDC), now operates as a Division of CVD Equipment Corporation. While CVD is a manufacturer of chemical vapor deposition and other custom/research equipment for the semiconductor industry, SDC made its’ mark as a technology driven manufacturer of Ultra High Purity (UHP) gas and chemical delivery systems for state-of-the-art semiconductor fabrication processes. SDC operates out of a 25,000 ft² facility fitted with over 4,000 ft² of Class 10 and Class 100 clean room manufacturing and laboratory space. These areas are tooled with over $1 Million in support and analytical equipment.

With a clear understanding of how instrumental process support equipment has become to next generation microchip production, SDC offers a complete gas and chemical delivery product lines ranging from cutting-edge to budget basic. SDC is now uniquely positioned for growth through global sales to major end-user semiconductor, opto-electronic, optical fiber and OEM equipment manufacturers.

SDC is headquartered in Saugerties, New York, about two hours north of New York City. SDC has a reputation for utilizing innovation and technology to produce a complete line of gas and chemical management systems delivering QUALITY directly to the semiconductor wafer. Spawned from a small field construction office, SDC has burgeoned into an influential equipment manufacturer with sales in excess of $150 Million since its’ inception. This one time “field construction office” has evolved into the company’s Field Operations Department, holding a pulse on technology, trends and opportunities while providing a TURNKEY capability enjoyed by few in our niche. Customers now recognize SDC’s gas management systems and application-specific chemical systems among the most advanced available. What differentiates SDC from the competition is its’ intimate understanding of the point-of-use process applications, having designed and built process gas panels for the world’s leading semiconductor equipment manufacturers and End Users such as: IBM, Lucent, Applied Materials, Motorola, Intel, Lam Research, Novellus, SVG, Tokyo Electron, Di-Nippon Screen, The Chinese Ministry of Electronics, Semitool and many more.

Advanced Manufacturing
SDC’s facility offers cutting edge design, clean room manufacturing and certification testing of UHP stainless and plastic systems. The company is committed to computer aided design, with over 15 design workstations standardized on Auto Cad 2000 (3-D) and Mechanical Desktop. An enormous database of design icons accelerates design cycle time. The 4,000 ft² Class 10/100 space is fully fitted with electrical facilities, bulk UHP nitrogen and argon, and 18 meg-ohm de-ionized water used in the high purity orbital welding and final test processes. There are 6 clean room orbital weld stations and facilities expansion slots for numerous future stations.

SDC’s Field Service Group is well equipped with eight (8) additional orbital weld systems of their own. SDC’s expertise and quality control in orbital welding of stainless steel are at the very foundation of the purity, reliability, and safety achieved in SDC’s products. The company’s analytical laboratory performs full certification of products under both dynamic and static test conditions to verify functionality and meeting Ultra-High-Purity (UHP) specifications. SDC has implemented a computerized materials resource requirement planning system to track all aspects of production. SDC has a well-seasoned Quality Management Program to improve many areas of the company’s business processes including; manufacturing efficiency, on-time deliveries, supplier and customer partnering. The goal of this program is total customer satisfaction.

The current market for UHP gas and chemical delivery equipment tops $1 Billion, covering products ranging from manual gas/chemical panels to fully automated gas and chemical management systems. Driven by the huge demand for the smaller geometry’s of more densely populated microchips, a much higher purity of gases/chemicals is required. Obviously the delivery equipment must follow suit. Traditionally, during the expansion of a semiconductor facility, the process support facilities equipment packages (i.e. Bulk gas, specialty gas, DI water) have been performed as part of the facilities construction contract. Now, with gases and chemicals becoming more and more critical to process yields, semiconductor companies have sought the expertise of gas and equipment suppliers who specialize in UHP designs and high reliability installations. In order to compete at this level or purity, a supplier must endeavor to better understand the theories, components and dynamics of these systems. This is precisely the area in which SDC now excels. No other company we know of offers the proven versatility of comprehensive manufacturing combined with field knowledge to provide for true TURNKEY gas and chemical delivery.