Outsourced ALD from samples to production and beyond

The world is getting thinner. The never-ending quest to miniaturize and digitalize everything while saving our limited resources requires innovative technologies that allow creating ultra-thin reflecting layers, strengthening coatings, nanolaminates and protective barriers in spaces where just a few years ago nobody imagined it would be possible to operate.

Atomic layer deposition, ALD, is such a technology.

Application examples range from flexible electronics, surface passivation of solar cells, moisture barriers of x-ray machines and anti-tarnish treatment of jewelry to RFID tags, smart packaging and LED efficiency improvements with optical coatings. The list goes on.

It isn’t always easy…

The pinhole-free and totally conformal surfaces we can achieve with atomic layer deposition can improve our customers’ products in many ways, but finding the exactly right process and chemistry can sometimes be challenging. We know that from experience.

On the other hand, we have implemented more industrial ALD applications than any other company. When our customers are facing a new coating challenge, our development teams have probably already done something similar.

Beneq is a solution-driven company. When we see a problem our customers are facing, we want to find a way to solve their problems. We are continuously seeking new ways to make ALD easier for our customers.

So a few years ago, we decided to help our customers by offering our development expertise as a service. It has worked very well.

Premium production and research equipment

As the world’s first site for industrial ALD production Beneq today features also 40 batch ALD tools onsite.

When we started offering ALD services, some of our service customers soon started asking if the extra capacity in our factory could be used for running small ALD production batches to coat their products. Well, of course it could.

Once we had figured out how to organize the logistics of outsourced atomic layer deposition, the natural next step was to ask: Why don’t we use the unique combination of our ALD service experience and our ALD factory to offer customers atomic layer deposition as a service during the whole life cycle of their products – from lab to fab? Indeed, why not?

That is exactly what we have done. Now the concept has been tested and proved and we have collected all our development service and ALD production experience from Beneq Services into one complete ALD package: Thin as a Service™.

Production-ready in two months

Beneq’s R&D Service is a complete solution that provides you with a fast way to implement ALD coatings from the first samples to full-blown production.

The service solution consists of two parts: the R&D service that aims to find the customized ALD solution the customer is looking for followed by the industrial production solution that applies the results on the customer’s end products.

The first service part is based on our ALD-123™ development process that (somewhat simplified) looks like this:

After the ALD-123™ process, the coating solution is production ready. You can then select from two options for production: buy your own equipment or continue with Beneq’s coating services.

You name it, we coat it!

Sometimes investing in own equipment is the natural choice because of logistics or production integration reasons, but outsourcing the production to Beneq is typically the fastest way. It allows you to get to the market with a lower risk and a tested industrial coating solution in less than six months. That is something we are quite proud of.

If you have a totally new coating problem, our development team is always keen on getting new challenges that no-one else in the world can solve!