Certain information contained or incorporated by reference in this Annual Report on Form 10-K is forward-looking in nature. All statements included or incorporated by reference in this Annual Report on Form 10-K or made by management of Axcelis Technologies, Inc., other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. Examples of forward-looking statements include statements regarding Axcelis' future financial results, operating results, business strategies, projected costs, product development or future sales, competitive positions and plans and objectives of management for future operations. We use terminology such as "anticipates," "believes," "plans," "expects," "future," "intends," may," "will," "should," "estimates," "predicts," "potential," "continue," and similar expressions to identify such forward-looking statements. Our actual results could differ materially from the results contemplated by these forward-looking statements due to a number of important factors, including those discussed in Exhibit 99 to this Form 10-K and elsewhere in this Form 10-K. This Form 10-K also contains forward-looking statements attributed to third parties relating to their estimates regarding the growth of our markets. Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause our actual results, as well as those of the markets we serve, levels of activity, performance, achievements and prospects to be materially different from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

We are a worldwide producer of ion implantation, dry strip, thermal processing and curing equipment used in the fabrication of semiconductor chips in the United States, Europe and Asia Pacific. We are the market share leader in ion implantation, have been the market share leader, as reported by Gartner Dataquest, in the ion implantation market segment in 6 of the last 8 years (through 2002). We have been the market share leader in the photostabilization market since its inception in 1993. The ion implantation business comprised approximately 73.7% of our revenues in 2003 with the remaining 26.3% being the dry strip, thermal processing and photostabilization businesses. In addition to equipment, we provide extensive aftermarket service and support, including spare parts, equipment upgrades, maintenance services and customer training. We sell to all the top 20 semiconductor chip manufacturers worldwide. We have a 50% owned joint venture with Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd. in Japan. This joint venture, formed in 1982, is known as Sumitomo Eaton Nova Corporation, or SEN, and is the leading producer of ion implantation equipment in Japan. SEN licenses technology from us for ion implantation and has exclusive rights to market these products in the territory of Japan.

Axcelis was incorporated in the state of Delaware in December 1995 as a subsidiary of Eaton Corporation. Axcelis completed an initial public offering of approximately 18% of its shares in July 2000 and in December 2000, Eaton distributed the other 82% of its shares to its shareholders. Axcelis is headquartered in Beverly, Massachusetts. We maintain an Internet site at http://www.axcelis.com. We make available free of charge on and through this website our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the Securities and Exchange Commission. Our website and the information contained therein or connected thereto shall not be deemed to be incorporated into this Form 10-K.

Industry Overview

Semiconductor chips, also known as integrated circuits, are used in personal computers, telecommunication equipment, digital consumer electronics, wireless communication products and other applications. Types of semiconductor chips include memory chips (which store and retrieve information), microprocessors (general purpose logic devices programmable to take instructions from software) and "system on chip" devices (which have both logic and memory features). Most semiconductor chips are built on a wafer of silicon up to twelve inches in diameter. Each semiconductor chip is made up of millions of tiny transistors or "switches" to control the functions of the device. The transistors are created by forming electrically active regions beneath the silicon surface to inhibit or prohibit electrical current flow. Later, metal interconnections are formed on top of the silicon that connect the transistor components together.

Semiconductor chip manufacturers utilize many different types of process tools in the making of integrated circuits. There are over 300 process steps utilizing over 50 different types of process tools required in the making of a single device like a microprocessor. Semiconductor chip manufacturers seek efficiency improvements through increased throughput, equipment utilization and higher manufacturing yields. Capacity is added by increasing the amount of manufacturing equipment in existing fabrication facilities and by constructing new fabrication facilities. During the period from early 1999 through 2000, semiconductor manufacturers met the increased demand for chips mostly by building new fabrication facilities, and by making additional equipment purchases to expand existing fabrication facilities. Periodic downturns in demand for electronic devices, such as that experienced from 2001 through most of 2003, have had a severe adverse impact on the semiconductor industry and on suppliers to the semiconductor industry.

Periodically, and historically every seven or eight years, the semiconductor industry adopts a larger silicon wafer size to achieve lower manufacturing costs. Semiconductor manufacturers can produce more chips on a larger wafer, thus reducing the overall manufacturing cost per chip. The majority of wafer fabrication facilities today are using wafers with a diameter of 200 mm (8 inches). Currently, the industry is in the midst of a transition to 300 mm (12 inches) wafers. New manufacturing equipment is required to handle these larger wafers. It is anticipated that manufacturers will add new 300 mm production capabilities over the next two to five years, which will lead to increased demand for 300 mm equipment.

The customer base is also changing. Given the magnitude of the investment needed to build a new wafer fabrication facility (often referred to as a "fab"), which today exceeds $1 billion and can be as high as $3 billion for a new 300 mm fab, and the very large volume of product each fab can produce, contract semiconductor manufacturers, or foundries, have emerged. Foundries provide out-sourced manufacturing of chips for chip designers and device manufacturers who may use foundries for all or part of their chip manufacturing requirements. Foundries, which are predominantly located in Taiwan and Singapore, have become significant purchasers of semiconductor manufacturing equipment. Recently, new foundries are being built in China to rival Taiwan and Singapore as more chip production is being outsourced. China is predicted to be one of the fastest growing regions for semiconductor manufacturing.

Our mission is to be a worldwide supplier of semiconductor processing equipment and services. Our vision is to be one of the top 10 semiconductor equipment companies, ranked by sales revenue, and to have the largest or second largest market share in each of our product markets. In 2002, Gartner Dataquest ranked us, together with SEN, 12th among semiconductor equipment manufacturers based on aggregated system sales revenues of $291 million.

We seek to provide best-in-breed semiconductor manufacturing equipment for selected front-end-of-line (transistor formation) as well as back-end-of-line (interconnect) process steps. Our primary strength is in the front-end transistor sequence, given our more than 20-year history in ion implantation, an important front-end-of-line process step. Our growth strategy involves expanding our product offering beyond implant. Through acquisitions completed in 1996, 1997 and 2003, we added complementary tool sets for processes (cleaning, curing, and thermal processing) that are adjacent to the ion implant process sequence. By adding these complementary products to our ion implantation product base, the total available market for all of our products has tripled over the last ten years, based on Dataquest's forecast for 2005, to over $3.0 billion. Our revenues from these complementary products represented 26.3% of our total 2003 revenues. We intend to continue growing our complementary product businesses, while maintaining our leadership position in ion implantation. In addition to offering adjacent front-end-of-line process steps around ion implant, these complementary tools led us to the back-end-of-line as these cleaning, curing and thermal processing tools are also used in the formation of interconnect layers. We believe the use of new materials for interconnects, such as copper conductors and new insulating materials called low-k dielectrics, will increase the appeal of our cleaning and curing products for back-end-of-line applications.

Operationally, we manage our business based on three main tenets:

    •  technology leadership

    •  operational excellence, and

    •  customer partnerships.

We have continued to invest in research and development through the industry cycles to assure our products meet the needs of our customers. We continue to add to our portfolio of patents and unpatented proprietary technology to ensure that our investment in technology leadership is translated into unique product advantages. We take pride in our staff of scientists and engineers that comprise over one-third of our workforce. We strive for operational excellence by focusing on ways to lower our manufacturing and design cost and to improve our delivery times to our customers. Finally, we have invested to improve our customer support infrastructure and have established Global Customer Teams, a very focused account management structure, to improve our customer relationships and increase customer satisfaction.

Ion implantation is a principal step in the transistor formation cycle of the semiconductor manufacturing process. An ion implanter is a large, technically advanced machine that injects charged particles, or dopants, such as arsenic, boron or phosphorus, into a silicon wafer through an accurately controlled electric and magnetic field, with a precisely defined amount of energy ranging between several hundred and three million volts. Certain areas of the silicon wafer are blocked off by a polymer material known as photoresist which acts as a "stencil" to pattern devices so that the dopants will only enter the wafer where needed. The dopants change the electrical properties of the silicon wafer to create the active components of a chip called the transistors. The amount of energy used to implant the ions determines the depth to which the dopant penetrates the wafer, and the amount of dopant or dose determines how much the electrical properties of the silicon wafer are changed.

There are three types of ion implantation machines: high energy, high current and high tilt/medium current. Each type injects ions either at greater dose, creating more ions per area (such as in high current tools), or with more energy, driving the ions deeper into the silicon (such as in high energy tools). The manufacturing processes for virtually all types of chips require the use of all three types of ion implanters. Typically, a wafer will receive from 10 to 35 ion implant steps as it is manufactured, depending on the complexity of the device. The industry trend is to design and build more complex, highly integrated chips that require more implants. An embedded memory device or system on chip is an example of a highly complex chip with multiple functions that will replace stand-alone chips in certain applications. We have designed our products to enhance the manufacturers' flexibility during the implant process, thus reducing the cost of production.

A high-energy implanter is typically used to implant dopants deep in the wafer, which allows improved isolation of adjoining transistors on the same chip. The high-energy segment is relatively new, with mainstream application being adopted in the mid to late 1990's. The use of high-energy implanters has expanded into the manufacture of virtually all types of chips. They are used in the manufacture of smaller, more complex chips, such as those used in cellular phones and other hand held devices, because they enable more functionality with less power consumption. They are also used for non-volatile memory applications such as FLASH memories and embedded technologies like system on chip to allow for multiple voltages on the same chip. These devices are typically manufactured using multi-wafer or "batch" implanters which process up to 13 wafers at one time, leading to increased productivity. Trends in this segment include the use of the high energy implanter for shallower implants that have typically been processed by a medium current implanter, which increases the capacity utilization of the machine, thus reducing its cost of ownership. In 2003 we introduced a new tool in our high energy family called the Paradigm. This machine offers better performance for lower energy medium current applications allowing customers to minimize the number of tools per fab lowering their capital cost. The Paradigm and Paradigm XE, high energy version, is the standard tool offering for 300 mm wafers.

For implants that require high concentration of dopants at medium to very shallow depths, a high current/low energy implanter is most often used. These implants are used to enable the electrical connections from the silicon to the metal lines for the subsequent interconnect cycle. In some applications, very shallow, high-dose implants result in faster chips, an important feature for certain microprocessors, digital signal processors and other types of logic chips. Machines with very low energy are required to make very shallow implants. These low energy systems typically require multi-wafer or "batch" end stations which allow for a shorter beam line length, minimizing beam dispersion problems that arise from the low energy. As the demand for these faster chips requiring very shallow implants grows, we expect the number of implanter tools per fab to increase, since productivity is greatly reduced at these lower energy levels. As a result, industry analysts predict the high current market to be the fastest growing implant segment over the next few years. During 2002, we introduced our Ultra High Current / Low Energy line of ion implanters as an extension of our existing high current products. These implanters use proprietary technology to increase the throughput of the machine thus lowering its cost of ownership.

Most ion implant steps occur with the ion beam perpendicular to the wafer. A high tilt/medium current implanter, however, is primarily used for the implant step that requires the ion beam to be positioned at less than a 90 degree angle to the wafer to implant dopants below preexisting features. The use of the high tilt/medium current implanter extends into some high-energy applications to allow customers greater flexibility in selecting the optimal combination of implanters for their needs. These systems are typically single wafer machines to allow for the high tilt capability. We are also seeing an increasing need for high tilt lower energy implants for advanced devices, as chips become more complex.

Together with SEN, we offer a complete line of high energy, high current and high tilt/medium current implanters for all chips and for all implant steps. We have sold over 2,500 implanters worldwide. The following chart lists our principal products:

All of our ion implantation systems share modular subsystems for efficiency and convenience. The subsystems for wafer handling robot, ion source, vacuum system and operator interface are common among our three implanter types. This common platform reduces our design, production time and costs, as well as overall cost of ownership for our customers by minimizing training, spare parts inventory and maintenance.

Dry Strip and Photostabilization Systems.We entered the dry strip and photostabilization product markets through our acquisition of Fusion Systems Corporation in August 1997. Fusion pioneered the development of photostabilization in 1993. In the process steps prior to ion implantation, a light sensitive, polymer-based liquid, called photoresist, is spread in a uniformly thin film on the wafer in a pattern creating a "stencil" effect. Photostabilization uses ultraviolet light to harden, or "cure," the photoresist so that it is more effective in maintaining the desired pattern during the subsequent implant processes and etch steps (in which the top layer of the surface of the wafer not covered by photoresist is removed). After these steps, the photoresist is no longer necessary and must be removed. The primary means of removing photoresist and residue is a process called "dry strip" or "ashing." Our dry strip machines, also called ashers, use microwave and rf energy to turn process gases into plasma, which then acts to "clean" the surface of the wafer by removing the photoresist and unwanted residue.

In addition to the use of photoresist prior to the front-end-of-line implant and etch processes, photoresist is also applied and removed during back-end-of-line processes. Stripping photoresist during the front-end of line transistor sequence is relatively simple and, therefore, the equipment required is characterized by high throughput and low cost. Stripping photoresist in the back-end of line interconnect sequence requires more complicated tools and cleaning chemistries due to the advanced materials being used at smaller geometries. One key process is the stripping of the photoresist lying on top of the low-k dielectric film used for copper lines. Since the low-k materials are easily damaged during the photoresist removal process, tools must be designed to minimize this damage. Because of these differing requirements for the front-end and back-end-of-line tools, we believe that over the next several years, the market for dry-strip tools will divide into two segments of equal market size, addressing these two different applications. In July of 2003 we acquired Matrix Integrated Systems, a privately held company that specialized in front-end of line dry strip tools and processes. The Matrix tool technology for front-end photo resist removal coupled with our in-house technology for back-end photo resist removal provides a complete solution for our customers.

The following chart lists our principal products in each category:

Fusion pioneered photostabilization technology, and we believe that our products remain the industry standard. Our dry strip tools are capable of removing bulk photoresist from the wafer, as well as the residue left behind after bulk strip. This reduces or eliminates the need for further wet chemical stripping by eliminating the use of hazardous chemicals traditionally used for this step. Manufacturing cost is further reduced by the fact that our ashers do not require side access, conserving expensive cleanroom space.

Our photostabilizers are used by integrated circuit manufacturers worldwide because of our proprietary ultraviolet light source and the high throughput of the Gemini dual chamber platform. Through several joint development efforts with third parties our photostabilizers also have been used for several applications in the interconnect processes such as for hardening and drying low-k dielectric materials.

At a number of points during the manufacturing process, silicon wafers need to be heated rapidly, often to 900 degrees centigrade or higher, in order to complete chemical or electronic reactions. This heating process is referred to as rapid thermal processing, or RTP. This step is used in both the transistor formation and interconnect formation processes of semiconductor manufacturing.

We acquired key technology in the area of rapid thermal processing through our 1996 acquisition of High Temperature Engineering Corporation. In 1999, we introduced our first rapid thermal processing products. Our RTP machine employs a patented design to process a single wafer in a hot wall vertical reactor. The reactor has three zones that are heated by resistive coils, as well as an actively cooled base, which create a uniform temperature gradient from top to bottom. Rapid heating and cooling of the wafer is achieved by simply adjusting the vertical position of the wafer within the reactor through the use of a lifter. The technology in our RTP system differs from most other RTP equipment, which regulates temperature though a lamp-based system.

The following chart lists our principal RTP products:

Our Summit series of RTP systems has a flexible design, offering both single and dual chamber systems. Its engineering incorporates recent developments in furnace design, temperature measurement, emission correction techniques and wafer handling. The machine is suited particularly well for lower temperature processing where lamp-based systems may have difficulty controlling the temperature. One of the trends in this market segment is the migration to lower temperature nickel silicide formation for advanced devices at 90 nanometers and below. Most logic customer's now are looking to migrate to nickel silicide processes from standard cobalt silicide processes over the next couple of years.

We offer our customers extensive post sales service and support throughout the lifecycle of the equipment we manufacture. We believe that more than 3,500 of our products, including products shipped by SEN, are in use in 50 countries worldwide. The service and support that we provide include spare parts, equipment upgrades, and maintenance services. We offer service out of 38 field offices in eleven countries. Revenues generated through our service and support business represented about 39.5% of net revenues in 2003 and 37.8% of net revenues in 2002.

Our customer support network includes over 500 sales and marketing personnel and service engineers, including field service engineers, spare parts support staff and applications engineers. An additional 100 persons located at our manufacturing facilities work with our customers to provide advanced equipment support, applications support, customer training and documentation.

Most of our customers maintain spare parts inventories for our machines. We use a web-based spare parts management and replenishment tracking program, or SMART, to facilitate internet communication and e-commerce with our customers. The implementation of our SMART program has helped us to achieve reduced order fulfillment costs and cycle times resulting in an expanded customer base for this service offering. Our Productivity Plus program launched in 2001 provides equipment optimization capabilities through on-site networking and internet technology.

We primarily sell our equipment and services through our direct sales force. We have 12 sales offices in eight countries. Aftermarket service and support is also offered at all of these offices. In the United States, we conduct sales and marketing activities from five locations. Outside of the United States, our sales offices are located in Taiwan, South Korea, China, Israel, Germany, Singapore, and Italy. In addition, isolated sales are made in smaller markets through distributors and manufacturing representatives.

In Japan, we market our products through two channels: one, we exclusively license our ion implant technology to our SEN joint venture, which manufactures and sells its machines and services directly to semiconductor manufacturers (see "SEN Joint Venture" below); and two, we sell our photostabilizers, dry strip and rapid thermal processing products in Japan through exclusive distribution agreements. From 1999 until 2003, Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd. (SHI) acted as our Japanese distributor of these products. In 2003 the agreement with SHI expired and we signed an agreement with Toda Technologies Service Co., Ltd in Japan to provide sales and support services for our RTP and Dry Strip equipment in the Japanese market. International sales, including export sales from our U.S. manufacturing facilities to foreign customers and sales by our foreign subsidiaries and branches, accounted for 64.6% of total net sales in 2003, 52.0% in 2002, and 62.0% in 2001. Substantially all of our sales are denominated in U.S. dollars. SEN's sales are denominated in Japanese yen. See Note 13 to our Consolidated Financial Statements contained in Item 8 of this Form 10-K for a breakdown of our net sales and long-lived assets in the United States, Europe and Asia.

In 2003, the top 20 semiconductor manufacturers accounted for approximately 73.4% of total semiconductor industry capital spending, up from 72.5% in 2002. These manufacturers are from the four largest semiconductor manufacturing regions in the world: the United States, Asia Pacific (Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, and China), Japan and Europe. SEN and we together serve all of the 20 largest semiconductor manufacturers. We believe that more than 3,500 of our products, including products shipped by SEN, are in use worldwide.

Net sales to our ten largest customers accounted for 66.8%, 63.5%, and 50.6% of net sales, respectively, in 2003, 2002, and 2001. We expect that sales of our products to relatively few customers will continue to account for a high percentage of net sales for the foreseeable future. In 2003, Samsung represented 11.9 % of net sales and Micron represented 11.1% of net sales. In 2002, IBM was the only customer that represented more than 10% of net sales (with 14.2% of net sales) and in 2001, no customer represented more than 10% of net sales.

For more than 20 years, we have exclusively licensed our ion implantation technology in Japan to SEN, a Japanese corporation of which Axcelis owns 50%. The other 50% of SEN is owned by SHI. SEN has 666 employees based in Tokyo and Toyo, Japan and manufactures, sells and services ion implanters in Japan. Each of Axcelis and SHI has equal representation on SEN's Board of Directors. In addition, Naoki Takahashi, one of Axcelis' directors, is a director and officer of SHI.

SEN holds an exclusive royalty-bearing license to use our current and future ion implantation technology to manufacture, use and sell products in Japan and has granted us a royalty-free world-wide (except for Japan) license to use any technology SEN develops which is an improvement to our technology. SEN may sell its products outside Japan only with our consent and coordination. From time to time, we have sold our equipment into Japan to our non-Japanese customers and SEN has sold equipment outside of Japan primarily to its Japanese customers and their joint ventures.

SEN pays us royalties on its net sales of ion implantation products in accordance with the rates set forth in a license agreement between SEN and Axcelis. The royalty rates vary depending on the type of implanter sold. These royalty amounts were $5.9 million in 2003, $8.3 million in 2002, and $5.8 million in 2001. In 2003, both SEN and Axcelis elected to enter into a one-year period of negotiating modifications to the agreement. If SEN and Axcelis do not agree to modifications to the license agreement prior to December 31, 2004, the current license agreement will continue in effect until terminated by Axcelis or by SEN with the approval of the Axcelis representatives on the SEN Board. SEN has been very successful in achieving its business purpose to manufacture and sell ion implanters using our technology in Japan, and Axcelis intends to continue to optimize the value of SEN.

We also have a trademark license agreement with SEN covering the names "Eaton" and "Nova" which obligates SEN to pay us an additional 0.5% royalty on net sales. This agreement will terminate on December 31, 2004.

Research and Development

Our industry continues to experience rapid technological change, requiring us to frequently introduce new products and enhancements. Our ability to remain competitive in this market will depend in part upon our ability to develop new and enhanced systems and to introduce these systems at competitive prices and on a timely and cost effective basis.

We devote a significant portion of our personnel and financial resources to research and development programs and seek to maintain close relationships with our customers to remain responsive to their product needs. We have also sought to reduce the development cycle for new products through a collaborative process whereby our engineering, manufacturing and marketing personnel work closely together with one another and with our customers at an earlier stage in the process. We also use 3D, computer-aided design, finite element analysis and other computer-based modeling methods to test new designs. We conduct our research and development programs at our facilities in Beverly, Massachusetts and in Rockville, Maryland. SEN also conducts research and development in Toyo, Japan.

Our expenditures for research and development during 2003, 2002, and 2001, were $63.3 million, $72.1 million, and $76.5 million respectively, or 19.7%, 23.3%, and 21.0%, of net sales, respectively. In 2003, we made several new product introductions at 300mm. We expect in future years that research and development expenditures will continue to represent a substantial percentage of net sales.

We manufacture ion implant, photostabilization, dry strip and rapid thermal processing products at our 445,200 sq. ft. facility in Beverly, Massachusetts. In addition, SEN manufactures ion implant and flat panel products at its 300,300 square foot facility in Toyo, Japan. From time to time, SEN acts as an out-sourced manufacturer for us in the case of those products currently manufactured by SEN and not by Axcelis, including our MC3 medium current implanter. In 2002, we completed the consolidation of our manufacturing operations from Rockville, Maryland (where we had previously manufactured our Curing and Cleaning products) to Beverly, Massachusetts. In 2003, we consolidated the manufacturing operations of Matrix Integrated Systems, Inc., an acquisition we made in the area of dry strip, from Richmond, California to Beverly, Massachusetts. We expect these manufacturing consolidations to continue to improve operational efficiencies and reduce cost as we now produce our equipment from one facility. Our manufacturing facilities employ advanced manufacturing methods and technologies, including lean manufacturing, Six Sigma controls and processes and web-enabled inventory purchase systems. We manufacture our products in cleanroom environments that are similar to the cleanrooms used by semiconductor manufacturers for wafer fabrication.

Our Beverly facility is also the location of our Advanced Technology Center, completed in early 2002. This center houses an advanced process development laboratory with 12,500 sq. ft of class 10/1000 cleanroom space for product demonstration and process development and a 34,000 sq. ft customer training center. To ensure that the customer's specifications are satisfied, per contract terms, the majority of systems are tested at our facilities prior to shipment, normally with the customer present, under conditions that substantially replicate the customer's production environment. These environmental conditions include power requirements, toxic gas usage, air handling requirements including humidity and temperature, equipment bay configuration, wafer characteristics and other factors. These procedures are intended to reduce installation and production qualification times and the amount of particulates and other contaminants in the assembled system, which in turn improves yield and reduces downtime for the customer.

After testing, the system is disassembled and packaged to maintain cleanroom standards during shipment. Installation is itself not a complex process and does not require specialized skills. It is typically performed by a team of assemblers from the customer and ourselves. It includes placing and leveling the equipment at its installation site, connecting it to sources of gas, water and electricity and recalibrating it to specifications that had previously been tested and met.

To reduce our labor expense and the time to installation for our customers, beginning in 1999, we adopted a new manufacturing technique for our ion implanter that we refer to as Ship from Cell. This technique allows us to avoid fully integrating and testing the integrated implanters on our factory floor prior to shipment. We assemble the implanters in 5 or 6 separate modules. The modules are then tested using specially developed software and are shipped directly to the customer, bypassing the manufacturing integration step. As a result, the implanter system is integrated for the first time on the customer's factory floor and tested for quality assurance. This technique saves an average of 4 weeks in our manufacturing cycle time, thus improving lead-times for our customers. Currently all of our 200 mm ion implanters can be shipped using the Ship from Cell technique. In 2003, 17% of our ion implantation tools were manufactured using the Ship from Cell technique compared with 40% of our tools shipped from cell in the peak of 2000. In the first half of 2004, we expect that all of our 300 mm tools will be qualified for Ship from Cell manufacturing and we expect that Ship from Cell will become the Axcelis standard for implantation manufacturing.

We purchase materials, components and subassemblies, such as pumps, machine components, power supplies and other electrical components, from various suppliers. These items are either standard products or built to our specifications. Some of the components and subassemblies included in our products are obtained either from a sole source or a limited group of suppliers, which could result in disruptions to our operations. We have installed a web-based supply chain system in order to increase efficiency and cut costs associated with obtaining materials and components. This system electronically exchanges information with our vendors as to purchase orders, forecasts and automatic delivery updates.

In 2002 we began outsourcing many of our major sub-assemblies and components. We have several large outsourcing partners that provide this service for assemblies like the frames, power distribution systems, wafer handling systems and vacuum systems. Axcelis will continue to aggressively pursue outsourcing to higher levels of machine build where the economics are justified, enabling factory capacity and margin improvement. At the end of 2003 we were outsourcing complex assemblies up to and including module build. We believe that in the future certain critical assemblies will continue to be manufactured in house due to the high level of expertise required.

The semiconductor wafer fabrication equipment market is highly competitive and is characterized by a small number of medium to large size participants. We compete in four principal product markets in both the front-end and back end of the semiconductor wafer fabrication process: ion implantation, dry strip, photostabilization and rapid thermal processing. Preexisting relationships have a significant influence on a customer's choice of equipment supplier. Other significant competitive factors in the semiconductor equipment market include price, cost of ownership, equipment performance, customer support, breadth of product line, distribution and financial viability.

Ion Implantation. In ion implantation, our major competition is Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, Inc. and Applied Materials, Inc., each of which competes in different areas of the implantation market. In the high-energy equipment segment our principal competitor is Varian Semiconductor. In the high current segment we compete mainly with Applied Materials, although Varian has a smaller position in that market as well. In the high tilt/medium current equipment segment, where we have a small market share, Varian has a leading market position. SEN is the largest manufacturer of ion implantation equipment in Japan and competes with Nissin Electric Co., Ltd., Ulvac Technologies, Inc., Varian and Applied Materials for sales in that market.

Curing and Cleaning Systems.Our principal competitors in the dry strip product market are Mattson Technology Inc. and Novellus Systems, Inc. and our principal competitor in photostabilization is Ushio in Japan, to whom we have granted a royalty-bearing patent license in this field.

Thermal Processing Systems.Our chief competitors in the rapid thermal processing equipment market are Applied Materials, Inc. and Mattson Technology Inc.

Intellectual Property

We rely on patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret protection, as well as contractual restrictions, in the United States and in other countries to protect our proprietary rights in our products and our business. As of January 15, 2004, we had 194 patents issued in the United States and 447 patents granted in other countries, as well as 500 patent applications (85 in the United States and 415 in other countries) on file with various patent agencies worldwide.

We intend to file additional patent applications as appropriate. Although patents are important to our business, we do not believe that we are substantially dependent on any single patent or any group of patents.

We have trademarks, both registered and unregistered, that are maintained to provide customer recognition for our products in the marketplace.

From time to time, we enter into license agreements with third parties under which we obtain or grant rights to patented or proprietary technology. Except for our license agreement with SEN (described above under "SEN Joint Venture"), none of our current licenses is material to us.

There has been substantial litigation regarding patent and other intellectual property rights in semiconductor-related industries. We have a patent litigation action against Applied Materials, Inc. (See Item 3. "Legal Proceedings.")

We can give no assurance that we, our licensors, licensees, customers or suppliers will not be subject to claims of patent infringement or claims to invalidate our patents, or that any such claims will not be successful, requiring Axcelis to pay substantial damages or delete certain features from our products or both.

As of December 31, 2003, our systems backlog was $97.7 million, as compared to $60.0 million, and $73.9 million, respectively, for December 31, 2002 and 2001. Our policy is to include in backlog only those system orders for which we have accepted purchase orders and typically are due to ship within 6 months. Backlog does not include orders received for our service business (spare parts, consumables and service contracts) due to the turn rate associated with that business. Generally, orders for service or parts revenue received during the quarter are performed or shipped within the same quarter. All orders are subject to cancellations or rescheduling by customers with limited or no penalties. Due to possible changes in system delivery schedules, cancellations of orders and delays in systems shipments, our backlog at any particular date is not necessarily indicative of our actual sales for any succeeding period. In addition, our backlog at the beginning of a quarter typically does not include all orders required to achieve our sales objectives for that quarter and is not a reliable indicator of our future sales.

As of December 31, 2003, we had 1,534 full-time and 59 temporary employees worldwide, of which 1,285 were employed in North America, 201 in Asia and 107 in Europe. We consider our relationship with our employees to be good.

Environmental

We are subject to environmental laws and regulations in the countries in which we operate that regulate, among other things: air emissions; water discharges; and the generation, use, storage, transportation, handling and disposal of solid and hazardous wastes produced by our manufacturing, research and development and sales activities. As with other companies engaged in like businesses, the nature of our operations exposes us to the risk of environmental liabilities, claims, penalties and orders. We believe, however, that our operations are in substantial compliance with applicable environmental laws and regulations and that there are no pending environmental matters that would have a material impact on our business. We are ISO-14001 certified in our Beverly, MA and Rockville, MD Facilities.

We have a total of 31 properties, of which 16 are located in the United States and the remainder is located in Asia and Europe, including offices in Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, China, Malaysia, Italy, Germany and France. Of these properties, one is owned and 30 are leased. In early 2003, we sold a 55 thousand square foot building owned by us in Beverly for cash net proceeds of $5.9 million.

Our principal facilities are listed below:

The Beverly facility includes a 135,000 square foot advanced process development, product demonstration, and customer-training center for all of the equipment we produce.

Our Japanese joint venture manufactures ion implantation products in a 300,300 square foot owned facility located in Toyo, Japan.

In 2003, we completed the relocation of the support functions for our Curing and Cleaning products located in Rockville, MD. As a result, we lowered our leased square footage at our Rockville facility from 117,328 square feet to 88,552 square feet.

Additionally, as a result of the acquisition of Matrix Integrated Systems, Inc., in July 2003, we acquired a leased facility of 30,683 square feet of office, research and development, and production space, which lease is expected to terminate not later than August of 2004.

We do not believe there is any material long-term, excess capacity in our manufacturing facilities, although utilization is subject to change based on customer demand. We believe that our manufacturing facilities and equipment generally are well maintained, in good operating condition, suitable for our purposes, and adequate for our present operations. Our Beverly, Massachusetts and Rockville, Maryland facilities are ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certified.

In January 2001, we filed a lawsuit against Applied Materials, Inc. ("Applied") in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The complaint alleged, among other things, that Applied's medium current/high energy ion implanter infringed our patent for ion implantation equipment using radio frequency linear accelerator technology. The patent at issue expires in mid 2005. Applied filed counterclaims under applicable state law arising from certain communications allegedly made by Axcelis about the lawsuit and its claims of infringement. A jury trial in July 2003 resulted in a verdict in favor of Applied Materials. We filed a notice of appeal in August 2003. In March 2004, we entered into a Settlement Agreement with Applied in which the lawsuit and the appeal were settled and dismissed with each party bearing its own costs and fees.

None

Mary G. Puma, 46, has been the Company's Chief Executive Officer since January 2002. From May 2000 until January 2002, Ms. Puma was the Company's President and Chief Operating Officer, prior to which she served as a Vice President of the Company from February 1999. In 1998, she became General Manager and Vice President of the Implant Systems Division of Eaton Corporation, a global diversified industrial manufacturer. In May 1996, she joined Eaton as General Manager of the Commercial Controls Division. Prior to joining Eaton, Ms. Puma spent 15 years in various marketing and general management positions for General Electric Company. Ms. Puma is a director of Nordson Corporation and Apogent Technologies, Inc.

Michael J. Luttati, 48, has been the Company's Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer since January 2002 and a Senior Vice President since July 2000. Mr. Luttati was General Manager, Ion Implant and Rapid Thermal Processing Systems from January 2000 until January 2002, prior to which he served as Director, Sales and Service from November 1998. Prior to joining us, Mr. Luttati served as Vice President, North America Sales Operations of Teradyne Inc., a manufacturer of semiconductor test and interconnection products, from 1996 to 1998 and, from 1983 to 1996, he held several other sales and marketing positions with Teradyne.

Stephen G. Bassett, 56, has been our interim Chief Financial Officer since June 2003. Prior to that, Mr. Bassett served as chief financial officer of Ezenia! Inc. from 1999 to 2002. From 1996 to 1999, Mr. Bassett worked as an independent financial consultant. From 1981 until 1996, Mr. Bassett served as an audit partner at Ernst & Young LLP, where he managed auditing services for a variety of organizations, ranging from multinational Fortune 500 companies to emerging businesses.

David W. Duff, Ph.D., 44, has been our Vice President and General Manager of our Ion Implant and Rapid Thermal Processing business since April 2002. Prior to that, Dr. Duff held several management positions at Axcelis since joining us in 1997, most recently, as Director of Marketing, Implant and Thermal Products. Prior to Axcelis, Dr. Duff worked in the capital equipment industry in variety of marketing management positions and prior to that, worked as a research scientist.

Lynnette C. Fallon, 44, is our Senior Vice President, Human Resources and Legal, General Counsel and corporate Secretary. Ms. Fallon joined Axcelis in April 2001 as Senior Vice President and General Counsel. Prior to that, Ms. Fallon was a partner in the Boston law firm of Palmer & Dodge LLP since 1992, where she was head of the Business Law Department from 1997 to 2001.

Jan-Paul van Maaren, 42, has been our Vice President and General Manager of our Curing and Cleaning business since December 2001. Prior to that, Dr. van Maaren held several management positions at Axcelis since joining us in 1997, most recently, as Director of Business Excellence for Ion Implantation and Rapid Thermal Processing systems. Prior to joining Axcelis, Dr. van Maaren held various marketing and management positions at Honeywell.

Craig M. Halterman, 40, has been our Vice President and Chief Information Officer since July 2000 and was our Director of Information Technology since the beginning of 2000. Prior to joining us, Mr. Halterman was Information Technology Director at Honeywell/Allied Signal in its space and defense systems business since 1997. Prior to that, Mr. Halterman held various information technology positions at The Dow Chemical Co., Thompson Consumer Electronics, General Electric Co. and RCA Consumer Electronics.

Donald W. Palette, 46, has been our Vice President, Controller and Treasurer since June 2003, prior to which he was Director of Finance since August 2000 and Controller since 1999. Prior to joining Axcelis in 1999, Mr. Palette was Director of Financial Reporting/Operations for Simplex, a leading manufacturer of fire protection and security systems. Prior to that, Mr. Palette was Director of Finance for Bell & Howell's Mail Processing Company, a leading manufacturer of high speed mail insertion and sorting equipment.

John M. Poate, 63, has been Vice President and Chief Technology Officer since June 2000. From 1997 until he joined Axcelis, Dr. Poate was Dean of the College of Science and Liberal Arts at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. From 1971 to 1997, he held several senior research positions, including head of silicon processing research, with Bell Laboratories.

Matthew P. Flynn, 47, became our Vice President Global Customer Operations in October 2002, prior to which Mr. Flynn was our Director of Sales, Ion Implant and RTP systems. Prior to joining Axcelis in 1996, Mr. Flynn held executive and management roles at Cherry Semiconductor, an integrated circuit manufacturer and at Teradyne Inc., a manufacturer of semiconductor test and interconnection products.

Kevin J. Brewer, 45, became our Vice President of Manufacturing Operations in October 2002, prior to which Mr. Brewer was Axcelis' Director of Operations. Prior to joining Axcelis in 1999, Mr. Brewer was Director of Operations, Business Jets at Raytheon Aircraft Company, a leading manufacturer of business and special mission aircraft owned by Raytheon Company, a manufacturer of defense, government and commercial electronics, as well as aircraft. Prior to that, Mr. Brewer held various management positions in operations and strategic planning in Raytheon Company's Electronic Systems and Missile Systems groups.

Our common stock trades on the Nasdaq stock market under the symbol ACLS. The following table sets forth the high and low closing sale prices as reported on the Nasdaq stock market during each of the quarters for the two most recent years. As of February 2, 2004, we had approximately 9,644 stockholders of record. Other than the $300 million cash dividend paid to Eaton out of the proceeds from our initial public offering in 2000, Axcelis has not paid any cash dividends. We do not anticipate paying cash dividends in the future and, in any event, would be restricted from doing so by the terms of our bank credit agreement.

The following selected consolidated statements of operations data for each of the three years ended December 31, 2003, 2002 and 2001 and the consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2003 and 2002 have been derived from the audited consolidated financial statements contained in Item 8 of Part II of this Form 10-K. The selected consolidated statements of operations data for the year ended December 31, 2000 and the consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2001 and 2000 have been derived from the audited financial statements contained in our Form 10-K filed on March 30, 2001. The selected consolidated statements of operations data for the year ended December 31, 1999 and the consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 1999 have been derived from the audited financial statements contained in our registration statement on Form S-1 filed on May 5, 2000, as amended.

The historical financial information set forth below may not be indicative of our future performance and should be read together with "Management's Discussion and Analysis" and our historical consolidated financial statements and notes to those statements included in Items 7 and 8 of Part II of this Form 10-K.