The approval of a strategic plan to cease operations of the company’s electronics assembly equipment business appears to be the final curtain for Kulicke & Soffa’s development efforts in Eindhoven. Last September, K&S announced that it was moving the production of its pick-and-place machines to a plant near its headquarters in Singapore, thereby axing 58 Eindhoven jobs. The remaining R&D team got the preliminary green light, with no guarantees. Now, it looks like the end of the road for them as well.
At the time of the September reorganization, K&S in Eindhoven was doing research and development for three product families: the iFlex machines for placing electronic components on PCBs, the Pixalux and Luminex equipment for placing mini and micro LEDs and the Liteq steppers for back-end lithography. The latter were sold to Onto Innovation in November. According to the new strategic plan approved by the board of directors, the loss-making electronics assembly equipment activities are to be wound down “in an effort to prioritize core semiconductor assembly business opportunities and enhance overall through-cycle financial performance.”
The decision follows a comprehensive business evaluation of the financial performance and pace of new product development of the electronics assembly equipment activities. The cessation is subject to a consultation process with the applicable works council and union representatives, which K&S intends to initiate in its third fiscal quarter of 2025. The company expects to complete most of the wind-down in the first half of fiscal 2026. Meanwhile, it will continue to focus its development resources on other opportunities supporting technology changes within the thermo-compression, vertical fan-out, automotive and advanced dispense markets.
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