About

Gripping Power, Inc. has supplied the semiconductor process industry with high voltage power supplies, RF traps, electrostatic chucks and control system components for over 15 years. The company was formed when a private investment group headed by John F. Kohls, CEO of Nova Research and Engineering, acquired Applied Energy Technologies (AET) in November of 2002. AET was an early-stage company that focused on microprocessor controlled power sub-systems. AET had developed a portfolio of advanced high voltage power supply technologies and intelligent battery charging systems.

Applied Energy Technologies, Inc. developed their first high voltage product, the EPS100 1kV bipolar, electrostatic chuck (ESC) power supply, in 1998 –

EPS100 power supply

The programmable EPS200 and the EPS300 electrostatic chuck power supplies were developed in 1999 and 2001, respectively. The EPS200 was the first ESC power supply available on the market to incorporate an arbitrary waveform generator. Likewise, the EPS300 was one of the first commercially available ESC power supplies to integrate a capacitive wafer sensor. The EPS200 and the EPS300 each allowed up to ten user-definable clamp and release programs to be defined and stored. Both have proven reliability in RIE, ICP and PECVD semiconductor processes.

EPS200 electrostatic chuck power supply

The EPS300LX, which included an integrated Luxtron fluoroptic fiber optic temperature measurement system, was announced at SEMICON West in 2002.

The new GPA, GPE and GPX series of electrostatic chuck power supplies were introduced at SEMICON West in 2018.

Industry Associations
Gripping Power Inc., is a member of the EtherCAT Technology Group.