SVTC Analytical Moves Into New Markets
The analytical services unit of SVTC Technologies is finding that its analytical and characterization skills are finding new uses in solar, medical and other non-IC markets. The 25-person analysis team is learning to analyze solar-use thin films on glass substrates, carbon nanotubes, and other emergent materials at its labs in San Jose and Austin.
David Lammers, News Editor -- Semiconductor International, 3/10/2009
Companies large and small are looking beyond traditional ICs to solar, medical and other related markets. SVTC Analytical Services is among them, developing an ability to analyze materials and structures used in medical devices, pharmaceuticals, metals and solar cells, among others.
A business unit of SVTC Technologies LLC (San Jose), the analytical services unit got a size boost when SVTC bought the Advanced Technology Development Facility (ATDF, Austin, Texas) from Sematech in December 2007. That added a second team of experienced analysts and tools to the existing unit in San Jose, raising the team’s size to ~25 people.
At the Pittcon 2009 Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy, being held this week in Chicago, SVTC Analytical Services is touting its experience analyzing solar thin-film compositions, metal alloys, microfluidic devices, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and other materials.
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| Julian Searle, SVTC |
“Solar and the larger energy companies are transforming what we do,” said Julian Searle, business development manager. “A lot of semiconductor knowledge is being applied to the solar customers who need to analyze films. It is a new market we are pursuing from an analytical standpoint.” SVTC has performed transmission electron microscopy (TEM) cross-sections, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) studies, and other characterization work for solar customers Searle declined to name.
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| Jack Blaha, SVTC |
SVTC Analytical Services is riding the same outsourcing wave that drove chip companies to use commercial mask shops rather than support in-house maskmaking capabilities, said Jack Blaha, general manager of technical services. Even the largest oil and metal product companies are turning to external analysis teams, in part because keeping the toolset up to date is so expensive. Some customers may own one key tool but not have other tools needed to do a complete analysis, Blaha said, adding that a completely equipped characterization lab costs $20M or more to equip, and additional funds to keep up to date.
“Believe it or not, even the big energy companies have very tight R&D budgets,” Blaha said. “Their equipment often is not good enough to do the job they want, or it may not be of the current generation. So they are reaching out to see if we have more advanced capabilities. In other cases, burst capacity may be required to get a sample analyzed quickly.”
SVTC charges on a per-sample basis, allowing a customer to get a specific job done for thousands of dollars rather than spending millions on a tool that may not be needed often. “We are on a variable-cost model,” Searle said. “They pay per sample, and get exactly what they want, and not what they don’t need.”
CNTs are being applied to a variety of products. SVTC has gained experience in analyzing single-walled, double-walled and other CNT varieties, Searle said. One customer, Nantero Inc. (Woburn, Mass.), uses SVTC to study the CNTs and other materials used in Nantero’s nonvolatile memories.
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| A SEM prepared by SVTC Analytical Services shows nanometer-sized channels on a drug delivery chip developed by NanoMedical Systems Inc. (Source: NMS Inc.) |
Medical device firms make up another new field that requires nanoscale characterization skills. A medical device startup, NanoMedical Systems Inc. (Austin, Texas), has worked with SVTC to characterize the microfluidic channels used in its implantable drug-delivery devices.
Many of SVTC’s customers “may not know right away what technique they need,” Searle said. “They have some powder, or a CNT, or they have made something and they need to know more about it. Perhaps they want to study the lattice structure, or the hydrogen content, and they don’t know how to achieve that. Our guys, who are Ph.D.-level people with experience working with certain analysis techniques, will listen to the customer and try to understand how to work with them.”
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