Disco Corporation

DISCO Corporation
Native name	株式会社ディスコ
Company type	Public KK
Traded as	TYO: 6146
ISIN	JP3548600000
Industry	Semiconductor
Founded	May 5, 1937; 87 years ago in Kure city, Hiroshima as Dai-Ichi Seitosho Company
Founder	Mitsuo Sekiya
Headquarters	Omori-Kita, Ōta, Tokyo 162-8557, Japan
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Hitoshi Mizorogi; (Chairman of the Board); Kazuma Sekiya; (President and CEO)
Products	Dicing saws; Laser saws; Grinders; Polishers; Wafer mounters;
Revenue	JPY ¥253.78 billion; (US$ 2.21 billion) (FY 2021)
Net income	JPY ¥66.21 billion; (US$ 576 million) (FY 2021)
Number of employees	4,091 (as of March 31, 2021)
Website	Official website
	Footnotes / references;

DISCO Corporation (株式会社ディスコ, Kabushiki-gaisha Disuko) is a Japanese precision tools maker, especially for the semiconductor production industry.

The company makes dicing saws and laser saws to cut semiconductor silicon wafers and other materials; grinders to process silicon and compound semiconductor wafers to ultra-thin levels; polishing machines to remove the grinding damage layer from the wafer back-side and to increase chip strength.^[2]

History

The company was founded as Daiichi-Seitosho in May 1937, as an industrial abrasive wheel manufacturer.^[3]

After World War II Japan faced a construction boom which also helped DISCO to boost its sales. The company's grinder discs were in high demand from utility companies, which needed them to manufacture watt-meters.^[4]

In December 1968 the company developed and released an ultra-thin resinoid cutting wheel, Microncut. The wheel contained diamond powder and as a result it was capable of making sharp, precision cuts as demanded in the semiconductor manufacturing process. There were no cutting machines available in the market on which ultra-thin precision wheels could be mounted and run, DISCO decided to develop its own machine in 1975. The cutting machine, DAD-2h, received instant recognition from semiconductor companies, including Texas Instruments.^[3]

The company adopted the name of DISCO Corporation in May 1977,^[3] was listed with the Japan Securities Dealers' Association in October 1989, and entered the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange in December 1999.^{[citation needed]}