WESTFORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Materion Corporation (NYSE: MTRN) announced today that its Precision Optics business has acquired the proprietary thin film gettering technology and related intellectual property assets from Integrated Sensing Systems (ISS), of Ypsilanti, Michigan, a global leader in the design and manufacture of microelectromechanical (MEMs)-based products and getter technology.
The assets acquired include the NanoGetters® technology, patents and trademarks. Getter technology is used to improve the long-term reliability of hermetically sealed sensor packages by capturing moisture and other stray gas molecules. The NanoGetters® technology developed by ISS uses a proprietary set of materials that are precisely vacuum deposited, providing an alternative solution to traditional non-evaporative gettering technology. Nanogetter technology offers many advantages over other getter solutions including its compatibility with clean semiconductor processing techniques and its low activation temperature.
NanoGetters® materials are already being used by customers worldwide in MEMs to improve vacuum packaging in a wide range of end-use sensor applications including infrared imaging, chemical sensors, microfluidic devices and other electronics devices.
The acquisition provides a technology augmentation and completes the vertical integration of Materion Precision Optics’ wafer level process flow for thermal imaging applications. In 2014, Materion Precision Optics commissioned a 3,000-square-foot class 1,000 clean room with state-of-the-art infrared coating chambers in anticipation of the thermal imaging industry’s ongoing shift from traditional singular window packaging to wafer level packaging (WLP). With this original investment at Westford, Massachusetts, Materion gained the capability to provide customers with two of the process steps for wafer level packaging: optical coating and metallization. With the acquisition of the NanoGetters® trade name and getter technology, Materion is now able to provide a full wafer level packaging coating solution to customers, an offering unmatched in the marketplace.
“This is a technology and commercial differentiator for Materion Precision Optics. It presents major new opportunities for existing and new customers to benefit from the cost and logistical efficiencies, consistency in operational processes and product quality, as well as an overall convenience from having their full offering provided from a single partner and sequenced under one roof,” commented Michael Newell, Ph.D., President, Materion Precision Optics. He explained, “Our customers have been asking for a solution like this and we are extremely pleased to be providing it.”
The new gettering capability is expected to facilitate additional business and will enhance the value-added revenue from each wafer processed. Additionally, Materion anticipates expanding the gettering technology to applications beyond infrared imaging including inertial sensors, medical sensors, oscillators and other MEMs devices, leveraging its wafer-level technology, product development and operational capabilities.
Materion Precision Optics is a Materion Corporation business. Materion Corporation is headquartered in Mayfield Heights, Ohio. The Company, through its wholly owned subsidiaries, supplies highly engineered advanced enabling materials to global markets. Products include precious and non-precious specialty metals, inorganic chemicals and powders, specialty coatings, specialty engineered beryllium alloys, beryllium and beryllium composites, and engineered clad and plated metal systems.
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