Smoltek

In March 2021, it was announced that Smoltek Semi had placed an order for a tool for the future industrial production of carbon nanofibers for the company's CNF-MIM capacitors. The tool is a central part of the production process in order to manufacture the company's capacitors in high volumes. 

- We have conducted factory acceptance tests of the carbon nano-growth tool, and it works perfectly. We will initially bring the tool home to Gothenburg, and then place it at the chosen foundry when we have established the manufacturing structure for volume production, says Smoltek's CEO Håkan Persson.

Smoltek Semi is now in a phase where the company is producing capacitor prototypes, without carbon nanofibers, to ensure the stability, repeatability, and overall quality necessary to produce the company's capacitors on 8-inch wafers (semiconductor substrates) in volume. The manufacturing is based on the standard for high-volume tools used in the semiconductor industry and takes place in collaboration with several partners globally.

Today carbon nanofibers are manufactured at Chalmers' MC2 laboratory. The laboratory tool has been modified to handle 8-inch wafers with the aim to ensure that Smoltek is not losing momentum, pending the completion of the new 8-inch tool, and thereby ensuring that Smoltek Semi reaches the goal of completing the fabrication of engineering samples, CNF-MIM capacitors, during the fourth quarter of 2023.

The migration to the 8-inch wafer format that has now been carried out enables a more efficient technology transfer of the manufacturing processes to a future production environment where the new high-volume carbon nano-growth tool is a prerequisite for high volume production.