May 27 2013
Materion Microelectronics & Services, a Materion Corporation (NYSE:MTRN) business, has opened a customer-focused Materials Applications Laboratory. "The launch of the Applications Laboratory will expand Materion's collaboration with our customers," says Richard Koba, Marketing Manager for the lab.
"It will offer an avenue to address challenging technical issues, as well as provide opportunities for joint development of new physical vapor deposition (PVD) materials. Customers are encouraged to reach out directly and partner with Materion's applications engineers to solve their PVD material issues."
Purpose of the Lab
The Applications Laboratory at the Westford facility will serve three functions: produce coatings for customer evaluations of PVD materials, promote customer education/collaboration and support Materion internal R&D. The laboratory features thin film equipment, such as a sputtering system with a 150mm diameter target and an electron beam box coater. It also contains a wide range of thin film characterization equipment, including a KLA-Tencor Surfscan 6420, which measures the surface topology (particles) on deposited films.
Coatings for Customer Evaluations
Materion offers quick-turn development of new metal alloys for various technological applications across diverse markets including: hard disk drive, silicon semiconductor, gallium arsenide (GaAs), radio frequency (RF) and light-emitting diode (LED). Our customers are able to evaluate thin films deposited from Materion's broad catalog of metallic and ceramic PVD products, as well as new PVD materials. Previously, evaluation of coatings deposited by Materion's evaporation or sputtering materials was performed by the customer, but now, under certain circumstances, Materion can provide test coatings.
Evaluation of coatings becomes especially important if the initial price of the PVD target or slug is high, as in the case of precious metals. If the material of interest is in stock at Materion, customers can purchase test coatings to check if a higher-cost PVD material will work for their application prior to having to purchase a target.
Collaboration and Education
Two applications engineers have been added to the Materion staff. Both are highly effective in building customer relationships and experienced in the field of PVD processing. Dr. David Van Heerden is primarily responsible for collaborating with customers, educating them on material properties and identifying PVD solutions. Mr. Lawrence Luke is in charge of day-to-day operations of the Lab.
Expanded Research & Development
The PVD Applications Laboratory will also focus on R&D. An example of recent work relates to EVAPro®, Materion's proprietary gold evaporation slugs. The Lab's evaluation is necessary for detection of the very low density of gold particles that ensure cleanliness and purity in the deposited coatings. It also supports efforts to reduce "spitting" from other evaporation materials in addition to gold.
With the opening of the PVD Materials Applications Laboratory and staff additions, Materion further expands its direct customer reach. With this collaborative approach, it is expected that coatings solutions and new PVD product opportunities will benefit both parties.