| DISCO Corporation | |
| Native Name: | 株式会社ディスコ |
| Type: | Public KK |
| Founder: | Mitsuo Sekiya |
| Foundation: | in Kure city, Hiroshima as Dai-Ichi Seitosho Company |
| Hq Location City: | Omori-Kita, Ōta, Tokyo 162-8557 |
| Hq Location Country: | Japan |
| Area Served: | Worldwide |
| Key People: | Hitoshi Mizorogi (Chairman of the Board) Kazuma Sekiya (President and CEO) |
| Industry: | Semiconductor |
| Revenue: | JPY ¥253.78 billion (US$ 2.21 billion) (FY 2021) |
| Net Income: | JPY ¥66.21 billion (US$ 576 million) (FY 2021) |
| Num Employees: | 4,091 (as of March 31, 2021) |
| Footnotes: | [1] [2] |
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]
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.