November 13, 2012 - Alchimer SA says it is seeking partnerships with various semiconductor equipment and materials companies as it welcomes two top execs. Bruno Morel is the company's CEO since May of this year, and product development director Frédéric Raynal has been promoted to CTO and VP of engineering.

Morel's background in equipment and materials companies includes multiyear stints at Applied Materials, Lam Research, Novellus, and Semiconductor Tooling Services; most recently he was VP of product development at solar inverter supplier Satcon Technology. Raynal joined Alchimer in 2003 as a specialist in electrochemistry and molecular engineering for backend-of-line (BEOL) copper metallization, 3D-IC metallization, fuel cells, batteries, and sensors.

Alchimer's wet deposition process technology ("electrografting") enables growth of extremely high-quality nanometric films at the wafer, device, and circuit board levels, and for MEMS applications. It is broadly applicable as an enabler for portable and high-performance electronics, which are increasingly dependent on advanced packaging and interconnect technologies, including TSVs, dual damascene structures and flexible substrates, the company explains.

The partnership strategy -- what the company says is simply a continuation of its business model -- aims to customize the company's wet deposition process technology and meet the needs of device makers, from the transition to 450mm wafers to increasingly smaller technology nodes. "I want Alchimer to be known as a flexible, adaptable, collaborative partner that can evolve along with our customers' technology and process needs,” stated Morel.

Both former Alchimer CEO Steve Lerner and former CTO Claudio Truzzi apparently are now with Alpha Szenszor Inc., a Belgian startup developing biosensor chips using proprietary semiconductor processing of CNT FETs, with IP licensed from Nantero. The firm claims to have closed a seed round of corporate financing, with a number of development programs in gas sensing and microfluidic delivery of proteins. Prior to Morel's appointment, Patrick Samama briefly served as CEO.