ESPOO, Finland, 19th October 2020 – The Chairman of the Board and founder of Picosun Group, Mr. Kustaa Poutiainen, has been awarded as Finland’s Entrepreneur of the Year 2020. Mr. Poutiainen received the National Entrepreneur Award in the annual meeting of the Federation of Finnish Enterprises in Jyväskylä on 17th October. The award is given every year to four Finnish entrepreneurs as a recognition of exceptional entrepreneurship.

Picosun provides ALD (Atomic Layer Deposition) thin film coating solutions to global microelectronics and other industries. ALD was invented in Finland in 1974 by Picosun Board Member Dr. Tuomo Suntola, who in 2018 received the Millennium Technology Prize in recognition of his invention. ALD is a mature, key enabling technology in today’s semiconductor manufacturing, realizing the development of modern microelectronics according to the Moore’s Law. ALD is expanding rapidly to other fields of industry as well, and it is expected to bring a fundamental disruption especially to healthcare technologies, where Picosun’s PicoMEDICAL™ solutions have already enabled several new innovations.

“Even if we had great premises to start manufacturing ALD equipment, not everyone believed in us in the beginning. Our personnel did and showed what they are capable of. It has taken us to a path of excellent growth,” says Poutiainen.

Picosun’s first customers, when the company entered the ALD business in 2004, were universities and research institutes. Now, the world’s leading electronics manufacturers and other companies turn to Picosun when they need the most advanced thin film coating technology to stay spearheading their own industries. Even in the middle of the global pandemic, Picosun’s turnover is expected to grow 50%, which is remarkably higher than the market’s average of 15%.

“Since day one, our vision was to be the best in the world. We have already achieved this with our R&D ALD tools, and now we are heading further. We invest a significant amount of our turnover in development of our ALD solutions and our personnel so that we can always exceed the expectations of our customers. It is an honor to receive the National Entrepreneurship Award of Finland, and it is an honor to be a part in steering Picosun towards the future, which looks very bright indeed,” continues Poutiainen.

“The whole Picosun team wants to congratulate our Chairman, Kustaa Poutiainen, on this prestigious award. We are very proud of his significant contributions and role in enabling the international breakthrough of Finnish originated ALD technology. I am sure that the entire global ALD community appreciates his efforts and joins our congratulations,” summarizes Mr. Jussi Rautee, CEO of Picosun Group.

More information:
Mr. Jussi Rautee
CEO, Picosun Group
Tel: +358 50 345 4457
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.picosun.com

• Read more about Picosun’s success brings Chairman of the Board Kustaa Poutiainen the National Entrepreneur Award of Finland 2020

ESPOO, Finland, 6th October 2020 – Picosun Group, the leading supplier of AGILE ALD® (Atomic Layer Deposition) thin film coating solutions for global industries, strengthens its position in power electronics market with several cluster ALD system sales to prominent manufacturers in Europe, USA and Asia.

“Power electronics is an important, fast growing market for Picosun. ALD has potential to solve various challenges manufacturers are facing in this field, and our solutions have enabled our customers to create significant added value in terms of device quality and throughput. At Picosun, we have developed several turn-key production ALD solutions specifically for 4-8 inch wafer markets such as power devices. Especially our cluster ALD systems, such as the PICOSUN® Morpher which we launched last year, have been extremely well received by our customers,” says Juhana Kostamo, Head of Customer Solutions/Deputy CEO of Picosun.

Power components are crucial in a wide range of applications from consumer electronics to transportation, energy production and distribution, including renewables such as wind and solar power generation. These components are typically manufactured on 4-8 inch compound semiconductor wafers such as GaN and SiC. These materials provide various benefits compared to pure silicon, for example higher electron mobility, higher threshold voltage, and ability to operate at higher temperatures. Challenges do exist, however, as GaN and SiC power devices are prone to high interface trap density (leading to parasitic currents and reduced electron mobility) and gate leakage current, and poor threshold voltage stability.

Interface trap density can be reduced by combining pre-cleaning methods with high permittivity, large bandgap insulators. High quality, defect-free high-k dielectric layers such as Al2O3, AlN or ZrO2 etc. are key in reducing power devices’ gate leakage current and to improve electron mobility and threshold voltage stability. A good example here are GaN-based HEMTs (high electron mobility transistors), which are important in various large scale practical applications, and which require efficient gate insulation and surface passivation to achieve optimal functionality.

ALD stands as a superior deposition method here compared to other thin film coating technologies such as PECVD, as ALD produces the most conformal, uniform, and defect-free films with accurate, digitally repeatable thickness control and sharp interfaces. With the right selection of ALD deposition equipment, even multilayer processing is possible i.e. various functional material layers and/or stacked films/nanolaminates can be manufactured in one process run.

PICOSUN® Morpher is a disruptive ALD production platform designed for up to 8 inch wafer industries such as power electronics, MEMS, sensors, LEDs, lasers, optics, and 5G components. Morpher’s operational agility makes the system adaptable to various and changing manufacturing needs, on all business verticals from corporate internal R&D to production and foundry manufacturing, where both the end products and/or customers’ requirements may change rapidly. Morpher can handle several substrate materials, batch and substrate sizes, and ALD materials with leading process quality. Multilayer deposition is possible, and cluster design allows integration of also other processing units such as pre-clean, RIE etc. for fully automated, high throughput continuous vacuum operation.

“In its versatility and transformability, Morpher is the epitome of our principle ‘Agile ALD’. Innovation, constant development and improvement of our ALD solutions to enable our customers’ success is our driving force at Picosun. This applies also to Morpher platform and we have some truly exciting additions to this product family coming in the near future,” summarizes Kostamo.

About Picosun
Picosun provides the most advanced AGILE ALD® (Atomic Layer Deposition) thin film coating solutions for global industries. Picosun’s ALD solutions enable technological leap into the future, with turn-key production processes and unmatched, pioneering expertise in the field – dating back to the invention of the technology itself. Today, PICOSUN® ALD equipment are in daily manufacturing use in numerous leading industries around the world. Picosun is based in Finland, with subsidiaries in Germany, USA, Singapore, Taiwan, China, Korea and Japan, offices in India and France, and a world-wide sales and support network. Visit www.picosun.com.

More information:
Juhana Kostamo
Head of Customer Solutions/Deputy CEO, Picosun Group
Tel: +358 50 3699 565
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.picosun.com

• Read more about Picosun’s cluster ALD solutions enable next generation power electronics

ESPOO, Finland, 24th September 2020 – Picosun Group, the leading supplier of AGILE ALD® (Atomic Layer Deposition) thin film coating technology, reports excellent results in UVC (ultraviolet-C) LED performance, achieved with the company’s ALD solutions.

Excellent reliability and lifetime improvements of UVC LEDs have been obtained at Picosun’s customer and collaboration partner site, National Chiao Tung University (NCTU), Taiwan, using passivation and barrier films deposited with PICOSUN® ALD equipment(*). ALD passivation layer could potentially replace the expensive hermetic seal package of the LEDs and thus lower the costs of the final device.

“We have used Picosun’s ALD technology already for years with great success. Our PICOSUN® ALD equipment yields superior quality films which has helped us to achieve several breakthroughs in our LED research. Picosun has local presence in Taiwan and we appreciate the prompt response of their customer support if we ever have any issues. At the phase when R&D results are to be ramped up to industrial-level production, the scalability of Picosun’s ALD technology is a huge benefit,” comments Professor Hao-Chung Kuo from NCTU.

In order to reach maximum light output and long operating lifetime, LED chips require surface passivation to eliminate parasitic currents caused by traps and defects. Also barrier coating is typically needed as LED materials are sensitive to moisture. ALD is an ideal technique to manufacture both the passivation and barrier films – and when the LED size diminishes to micrometer dimensions, the only coating method capable of producing high enough quality films on the required minuscule scale. Ultra-thin, pinhole-free ALD films do not suppress the LED light intensity and they provide reliable protection against ambient conditions, whereas their superior conformality ensures no thickness variations between the facets of the LED chip. Thickness variations, typical side effect of other coating methods, can potentially lead to uneven distribution of film stress or thermal expansion behavior and risk physical damage of the chip.

Short-wavelength UVC radiation destroys bacteria and viruses so UVC LED technology is particularly topical now during the still ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Small, lightweight LEDs enable versatile design of portable, compact disinfecting equipment, they consume less power than other UVC sources, they are durable, and they pose no risk of hazardous material leaks such as e.g. mercury lamps.

“We are happy of the achievements of Professor Kuo’s group at NCTU, and how Picosun’s ALD technology has helped them to achieve their goals in UVC LED development. Our long-term collaboration and networking with both the academia and prominent industries in this field gives us the perfect synergy advantage to facilitate implementation of these solutions in industrial manufacturing,” says Mr. Edwin Wu, CEO of Picosun Asia Pte. Ltd.

(*) UVC LED with 50 nm ALD Al2O3 passivation and normal LED packaging (no hermetic seal) maintained 80% of its original efficiency even after 500 hours environmental test at 85% humidity and 85 oC temperature.

About Picosun
Picosun provides the most advanced AGILE ALD® (Atomic Layer Deposition) thin film coating solutions for global industries. Picosun’s ALD solutions enable technological leap into the future, with turn-key production processes and unmatched, pioneering expertise in the field – dating back to the invention of the technology itself. Today, PICOSUN® ALD equipment are in daily manufacturing use in numerous leading industries around the world. Picosun is based in Finland, with subsidiaries in Germany, USA, Singapore, Taiwan, China, Korea and Japan, offices in India and France, and a world-wide sales and support network. Visit www.picosun.com.

More information:
Mr. Edwin Wu
CEO, Picosun Asia Pte. Ltd.
Tel: +358 40 480 3449
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.picosun.com

• Read more about Picosun’s ALD technology boosts UVC LED performance

ESPOO, Finland, 31st August 2020 – Picosun Group’s growth strategy is based on strong expansion into industrial ALD markets. To support this strategy, special emphasis has been placed on strengthening the Group’s global service organization. The investment has paid itself back in the form of high level of customer satisfaction, despite the challenges caused by the global covid-19 pandemic especially in traveling and logistics.

“Due to the reinforced localization of our service and support units, our service engineers’ utilization level has been more than 85% in the past six months, and with the latest remote service and support tools we have gained advantage to manage our customers’ PICOSUN® ALD system commissionings online and in time. ALD tool maintenances, process development, spare parts and other critical deliveries are also provided locally with maximum safety precautions in place, to ensure customers continuous operation of their PICOSUN® ALD equipment,” states Mr. Timo Malinen, Customer Experience Director of Picosun Group.

During the last months, Picosun Group has hired and trained several new service engineers and sales and support personnel to provide local support at the Group’s US, Asian, and European locations. Remote diagnostics, control, and data logging features for remote troubleshooting and process optimization of customers’ PICOSUN® ALD tools are a routine approach in the Group’s ALD solution deliveries. Augmented and/or virtual reality solutions for even more efficient service operations and remote learning/e-training possibilities are also under development and will be introduced in all Picosun’s operations later on.

“Our principle of ‘AGILE ALD’ and our position as the technological forerunner in our field obligate us to provide the best possible services and solutions to our customers. As a globally operating company, pandemic risk scenarios are an integral part of our continuous risk planning. Against the backdrop of the current covid-19 outbreak, our service operations are continuously being adapted to mitigate potential impacts. Picosun Group follows a holistic management process that enables constant development of our customer service unit to ensure the best possible response even in an emergency situation,” continues Malinen.

For Picosun, the health of employees and customers is the highest priority. In order to closely monitor and manage the covid-19 situation, Picosun follows all the safety regulations provided by WHO, CDC, ECDC, and Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, and provides the necessary information timely to all employees, customers, and other stakeholders.

Picosun provides the most advanced AGILE ALD® (Atomic Layer Deposition) thin film coating solutions for global industries. Picosun’s ALD solutions enable technological leap into the future, with turn-key production processes and unmatched, pioneering expertise in the field – dating back to the invention of the technology itself. Today, PICOSUN® ALD equipment are in daily manufacturing use in numerous leading industries around the world. Picosun is based in Finland, with subsidiaries in Germany, USA, Singapore, Taiwan, China, Korea and Japan, offices in India and France, and a world-wide sales and support network. Visit www.picosun.com.

More information:
Mr. Timo Malinen
Customer Experience Director, Picosun Group
Tel. +358 40 5011 860
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.picosun.com

• Read more about High customer satisfaction with Picosun’s new service and support model