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Park Systems Corp. | CEO

Dr. Sang-il Park

From Lab Bench to Global AFM Business Leadership: 40 Years of AFM Innovation and Business Challenges

 

 

Abstract

In celebration of the 40th anniversary of Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), this keynote will reflect on my four-decade journey from graduate student under Prof. Calvin Quate to founder and CEO of Park Systems, now the global market share leader in the AFM industry. I will recount three defining milestones: founding in 1988 in Silicon Valley the world’s first company to commercialize and introduce AFM; returning to Korea in 1997 to launch Park Systems amid a challenging start-up climate; and taking the company public in 2015 to enter the highly demanding semiconductor metrology market. I will also highlight our core AFM technology innovations — including orthogonal scan systems, True Non-Contact Mode, automatic scan parameter optimization, automatic probe exchange, and automatic laser beam alignment — that drove our growth. Today, Park Systems leads the global AFM market with $150M in revenue, over $1B market cap, and 600 employees worldwide.