Did you know that the history of AP&S goes back to 1995 and started in a small tractor shed in Donaueschingen-Aasen? Surprising, isn't it? Find out more exciting facts here in the interview with Horst Hall, founder and main shareholder of AP&S. Risk-taking, innovative and extremely exciting.
Horst, how did the story of the wet process plants in Donaueschingen-Aasen begin?
Horst Hall: "That was on 1.4.1995 in Aasen Burgring 4, at my parents' house behind the house. The first headline about my business was "Hightech in the tractor shed". The first contracts from HMR, which was the name of my company (AP&S since 2003), were signed in the kitchen at my mother's house.
In 1998, we then moved to Obere Wiesen, where the company's headquarters are still located today. At that time, the building cost about 1.5 times our turnover. No bank would finance that today. In 1998, we received a Young Entrepreneur Award from the state of Baden-Württemberg from the then Minister President Erwin Teufel, the laudation was held by Mr. Herrenknecht from Herrenknecht AG."
How did you get into the semiconductor industry, or rather, how did you come across the products of wet process technology?
Horst Hall: "My career began in 1981 when I took over responsibility for all machines in a thin-film laboratory at Endress & Hauser in Maulburg. After that, I spent a year at Bosch in thick-film technology, and in 1985 I went to Pokorny. Later we were taken over by Steag, and the new name was Steag Microtec. At Steag we were already doing wet process equipment. Steag stopped producing some products. We then added these to the portfolio at HMR."
Can you remember your first job? What kind of plant did it involve?
Horst Hall: "The first plant was a small MWP for Micronas in Freiburg, and the first AWP was for Philips (now NXP) in Hamburg in 1997."
Read the complete interview here.
