Brooks Automation — 2 prefixes (MA-L)

A MAC address beginning with 00:0A:A9 or 00:A0:ED belongs to Brooks Automation, and in practice is most likely to turn up on semiconductor-fab equipment — wafer-handling robots, vacuum robots, and Equipment Front-End Module (EFEM) controllers — rather than on office or consumer gear.

The two prefixes trace to two distinct legal entities registered under the "Brooks Automation" name: 00-0A-A9 to Brooks Automation GmbH in Jena, Germany, and 00-A0-ED to Brooks Automation, Inc. in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. Both are confirmed 24-bit MA-L blocks in IEEE's registry, with no other exact-name sub-blocks found.

The underlying business has a longer history than the OUI count suggests. Brooks Automation, Inc. was founded in 1978 in Chelmsford and traded on Nasdaq as BRKS. In 2021 it split: the life-sciences business retained the public entity and was renamed Azenta, Inc. (Nasdaq: AZTA), while the semiconductor-automation business — the more plausible source of devices carrying this OUI — was sold to Thomas H. Lee Partners for roughly $3B, closing in early 2022, and continues today as a privately held company under the Brooks / Brooks Automation brand.

Two caveats matter for anyone using this entry to identify a device. First, a separately named organization, "Brooks Instrument" of Hatfield, PA, holds its own MA-M block and is not part of this entry's count. Second, no Brooks-specific CVE or ICS-CERT advisory turned up in a targeted search — that is a sourced null, not evidence of a clean security record, since fab-floor equipment of this class is rarely publicly disclosed the way perimeter devices are.

IEEE assignments

2 confirmed MA-L (24-bit) blocks under the "Brooks Automation" name — 00-0A-A9 (Brooks Automation GmbH, Jena, DE) and 00-A0-ED (Brooks Automation, Inc., Chelmsford, MA, US) [Confirmed] — the IEEE MA-L registry, :29987

Registry / block size

MA-L (24-bit OUI) x2; no MA-M/MA-S block found under either exact org-name string in the cached the IEEE MA-M registry/oui36.csv [Confirmed] — the IEEE MA-L registry, the IEEE MA-M registry, the IEEE MA-S registry

HQ / country

two registered addresses — Jena, Thuringia, DE 07745 and Chelmsford, MA, US 01824 [Confirmed] — IEEE MA-L

Company status

active — the semiconductor-automation business operates today as a privately held company (Thomas H. Lee Partners portfolio) under the Brooks/Brooks Automation brand; a mid-2026 US IPO was reportedly being weighed per a secondary aggregator, unverified against a primary source

[Likely] — brooks.com; caproasia.com (secondary, lower confidence)

Device types

wafer-handling robots, vacuum robots, EFEM systems, robot controllers, aligner/automation controllers (e.g. ESC-201B, TEC-3000, model 002-9400-04) [Likely] — freepatentsonline.com, svtechparts.com, anacapaequipment.com

Notable products

EFEM wafer-handling systems, robot/aligner controllers for semiconductor-fab and advanced-packaging tools [Likely] — svtechparts.com

Corporate history

founded 1978 in Chelmsford, MA by Norman and Frank Brooks; traded Nasdaq as BRKS; split Dec 2021 — life-sciences business renamed Azenta, Inc. (Nasdaq: AZTA); Semiconductor Solutions Group sold to Thomas H. Lee Partners for ~$3B, closing ~early 2022

[Confirmed] — sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/933974, investors.azenta.com, prnewswire.com

Registration dates note

IEEE's public MA-L data (the IEEE MA-L registry: Registry, Assignment, Organization Name, Organization Address) publishes NO assignment/registration date for either block. maclookup.app displays third-party "registration dates" (00:A0:ED initial 1998-04-22, updated 2015-11-17; 00:0A:A9 initial 2002-10-14, updated 2015-11-17) — these are that site's own database-ingestion metadata, not IEEE facts, and must not be attributed to IEEE

[Confirmed] — maclookup.app/macaddress/00A0ED, maclookup.app/macaddress/000AA9

Related vendors

Azenta, Inc. (Nasdaq: AZTA, former public parent, retained life-sciences business); Thomas H. Lee Partners (acquirer of Semiconductor Solutions Group); Brooks Instrument (Hatfield, PA, MA-M block 943EFD0 — distinct organization, not merged)

[Confirmed] — investors.azenta.com, prnewswire.com, the IEEE MA-M registry

Security context

no Brooks-Automation-specific CVE or ICS-CERT advisory found in a targeted search; a sourced null, not evidence of a clean record [Unknown] — CISA ICS advisories index, general CVE search

Analyst note

this entry clears the abstain bar — two confirmed multi-entity OUI assignments plus independently corroborated product/device and corporate-history context, not a bare single-OUI shell.