From semiconductors to process industry
The technology is based on a technique called atomic layer deposition (ALD). This technique is already used widely in the semiconductor industry to very accurately apply various materials layer-by-layer to silicon wafers. ‘We are now introducing this technology to the process industry for the first time,’ says Van Limpt. The fledgling company has already received a Valorisation Grant from NanoNextNL and a Take-Off Grant from STW, and it also reached the top-10 of the European ClimateLaunchpad, a competition for highly promising cleantech start-ups.
Scaling up
The process has emerged from the academic research performed by Ruud van Ommen of Delft University of Technology. He developed and patented a way of scaling up the ALD process, which can normally coat several grams of material per hour at the lab scale, into a fully-fledged production facility that can coat kilograms per hour. ‘With the help of the Valorisation Grant, we will construct this pilot-scale system to show potential clients the strength of the technology,’ says Van Limpt.