Stephen Strausser was recently appointed CEO of VON ARDENNE North America, Inc. where he will lead the company’s regional strategy, operations, customer engagement and growth initiatives across the US, Canada, Mexico and South America.
Stephen has a powerful blend of business acumen, operations, service/support and engineering experience supported by an academic foundation in manufacturing and electrical engineering. His international experience includes Asia Pacific assignments in business/product development, M&A, marketing and building global OEM supplier relationships. He has held leadership roles at Applied Materials, Tokyo Electron Limited, ASMI, ATMI, Texas Instruments, and more.
Stephen holds a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and a Master of Science in engineering from the University of Texas at Dallas. He is based in Perrysburg, Ohio.
Tell us about your company?
We combine high-precision engineering and exceptional knowledge in materials science to deliver advanced vacuum deposition system solutions with configure-to-order flexibility and sub-nanometer precision for all substrate sizes and materials. With extensive scientific expertise, flexible tool platforms, and a collaborative approach, we empower customers in various industries such as semiconductors, optics, electronics and aerospace to scale from R&D to high-volume manufacturing and solve advanced coating challenges that conventional vendors won’t address.
What problems are you solving?
VON ARDENNE helps advanced manufacturers develop, industrialize, and operate precision thin-film coating processes at production scale, and provides scalable equipment improving product performance, manufacturing efficiency, device yield and equipment uptime.
What application areas are your strongest?
In the semiconductor industry, we advance high-precision deposition solutions for emerging applications, including advanced packaging, MEMS and PiezoMEMS, supporting customers with flexible, customized equipment and process development. In aerospace, we provide advanced coating equipment and solutions for applications ranging from turbine components and optical systems to aviation transparencies and space optics.
This expertise builds on decades of experience as a market-leading coating equipment provider in the glass and photovoltaics industries.
What keeps your semiconductor customers up at night?
Thin-film deposition is one of the biggest challenges in semiconductor manufacturing because devices are shrinking, architecture is becoming three-dimensional (3D), and new materials are replacing traditional ones. Manufacturers need coatings that are thinner, more uniform, and deposited with fewer defects than ever before on larger substrates. Beyond that, crystallinity and consistent composition of materials are increasingly important.
For example, today’s transistors require films that are only a few atomic layers thick with extremely tight thickness, composition and conformality control. Small variations can reduce chip performance and yield. In addition, these devices have deep trenches, vias and 3D architecture that are difficult to coat evenly. Poor coating leads to defects and electrical failures, which can be costly.
What does the competitive landscape look like and how do you differentiate?
Rather than trying to be everything to everyone, we differentiate ourselves through custom engineering, process expertise, and industrial-scale thin-film production solutions. We combine precision vacuum deposition equipment with comprehensive process know-how and collaborative engineering. When customer requirements dictate, our systems are tailored to specific materials and production requirements rather than being limited to standard configurations, helping manufacturers successfully industrialize advanced thin-film technologies—from concept through high-volume production—while improving yield, reliability, and long-term performance.
A customer chooses VON ARDENNE when they need a partner to solve complex manufacturing challenges with value added solutions.
We also handle lifecycle support, from upgrading 200mm fabs equipment to providing spare parts and process improvements that help extend equipment life and performance.
What new features/technology are you working on?
At SEMICON West 2025, we introduced our new OPTA X300 deposition tool and the opening of ISO 5 and ISO 7 cleanrooms in Dresden, Germany.
The OPTA X300 rotary disk coating system is VON ARDENNE’s flagship platform for sub-nanometer precision deposition on demanding substrates. Purpose-built for electrical and optical layers for memory, photonics and sensor devices, the OTPA X300 offers flexibility to support customers from R&D through high-volume manufacturing.
The new cleanroom in Dresden, Germany, features 200m2 of ISO 5 (Class 100) assembly and test bays with airborne molecular contamination control (AMC) as well as 400m2 of ISO 7 cleanroom manufacturing space. The cleanroom is designed for semiconductor, optical and space applications and is extreme ultraviolet (EUV)-ready.
How do customers normally engage with your company?
For more information, visit https://vonardenne.us/ . Or visit us at SEMICON West, taking place October 13-15, 2026, in San Francisco (Booth #5373). I also welcome you to connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sstrausser/.
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