From Start-Up to Global Player: 40 Years MKS VSD in Berlin

Our success story around gas-in-water solutions begins on May 16, 1984. At that time, Mr. Stiehl, PhD in engineering, founded "Sorbios Verfahrenstechnische Geräte und Systeme GmbH".

Back in the 1980s, before the term “start-up” was widely recognized in Germany, a handful of team members led by our founder, Mr. Stiehl, was already blazing a trail. Like many of today’s large companies that began in garages or student flats, they set the foundation for our future success.

Long-time employees fondly recall their early days at the company.

“We wanted to create something,” said Christiane Le Tiec, now Fellow & Director of R&D in the MSD division. “So we joined forces to experiment and work on test setups and products – often until late at night. After all, we wanted to supply the first customers with our devices. When we ran out of energy, we had pizza from the Italian restaurant next door, and loud music in the production hall kept the atmosphere lively.”

Today, we develop, build and test gas-water equipment at the VSD site in Berlin. Initially, everything revolved around products for the treatment of clear and waste water as well as air ionization to prevent electrostatic charges in semiconductor factories.

However, even before the turn of the millennium (1996), our focus shifted. Since then, we have been exclusively producing for the semiconductor market.

In the semiconductor and electronics industry, the production of devices such as chips, displays and solar panels requires very precise and clean manufacturing processes. Even tiny dust particles or unwanted materials can render a device unusable. This is where dissolved gases in deionized water come into play. Surfaces are cleaned and prepared with ozone or other gases dissolved in high-purity water. In this way, particles and impurities are removed from the surfaces of chips and other components in an efficient and environmentally sound way.

For this purpose, we develop and manufacture the technologies and systems in Berlin.

Our products are foundational to the high standards in electronics manufacturing.

Today, over 80 employees research, develop, and manufacture our products for the provision of reactive gas in wet media. All activities are conducted here in Berlin.

A large number of patents relating to the solution of ozone and its measurement testify to the long history of innovation that we are writing in Berlin. Our Berlin products not only stand out from those of our international competitors in terms of technology. We solve the most critical customer challenges by flexibly adapting our product design to specific customer requirements.

We also work closely with our customers after the product has been delivered: Our worldwide on-site service and qualified contact personnel stand for the highest level of satisfaction, even if the request is challenging.

Customers appreciate this: In December 2023, MKS Berlin received an award for “Outstanding Production Support” from one of the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturers, TSMC, at the “Supply Chain Management Forum.”

The energy of the early days still reverberates in the company today. Many employees who joined us in the early days, e.g. as working students, are still with us today.

“They gained invaluable experience over decades,” said Anja Vedder, General Manager of our Dissolved Gases business in Berlin. “To this day, they put all their heart and soul into our products and pass on their knowledge to new employees. Combined with these fresh ideas and new vigor, we will continue to ensure that MKS Berlin products contribute to progress and innovation at the leading semiconductor producers in the future.”

1988: Showcasing Sorbios' products and team.

• 1984: Company founded with fewer than 10 employees; initially concentrated on two product groups: ozone gas generators for the environmental technology sector (clear water treatment, wastewater treatment) and air ionization for the semiconductor market.
• End of the 1980s: Research on the use of ozone in the semiconductor market.
• 1993: Introduction of the SEMOZON 090.2 ozone gas generator, which we had in our product portfolio for almost three decades (production discontinued in 2019)
• 1996: Leaving the environmental technology market, focusing solely on the semiconductor market.
• In the same year: Move to a larger building in Gustav-Meyer-Allee; Production was carried out externally “wall-to-wall” at the company “IBIA”, which also employed former Sorbios production employees; today the lunch cantinerie is located there.

ASTeX

• 1997: Takeover of Sorbios by the then largest competitor ASTeX Inc. from Woburn, Massachusetts; it was soon renamed to ASTeX SORBIOS GmbH.
• In the same year: Development of the first ozone-water prototypes (LIQUOZON® Dissolved Ozone Gas Delivery System) and the SEMOZON 250 for Watkins-Johnson as a large gas generator.
• 1999: LIQUOZON 100 Dissolved Ozone Gas Delivery System and LIQUOZON 50 Dissolved Ozone Gas Delivery System are sold to the first major customers.
• 2000: The LIQUOZON XF goes on sale.

• 2001: MKS buys ASTeX Inc. and moves the team to its current location in Wattstraße; here the equipment is again manufactured in-house - including a clean room and water system.
• 2004: Development of the LIQUOZON Single Dissolved Ozone Gas Delivery System and the LIQUOZON Smart Dissolved Ozone Gas Delivery System together with the soon to follow LIQUOZON PrimO3 Dissolved Ozone Gas Delivery System were the top products of the coming years for wafer and flat panel applications.
• 2006: The DI-Solver™ NH3 Delivery System complements the MKS product range with a new dissolved gas.
• 2007: LIQUOZON PrimO3 Dissolved Ozone Gas Delivery System is developed and sold with pumps and recirculation at a customer's request.

• 2011: The LIQUOZON Stream Dissolved Ozone Gas Delivery System for high streams is sold.
• 2017: The LIQUOZON VariO3 Dissolved Ozone Gas Delivery System represents a revolution in product design, combining the capabilities of all previous ozone products into one configurable device.
• In the same year: With the DI-Solver NH3 Delivery System, another dissolved gas is added to the product family.
• 2020-2022: Focusing of the product range: Many of the ozone predecessors, which have been continuously manufactured and further developed for over 15 years, are retiring and making way for modern, more flexible equipment designs.