CEO Interview with Matthew Stephens of Impact Nano

Matthew Stephens, co-founder and CEO of Impact Nano, brings over 20 years of experience commercializing advanced materials. Prior to co-founding Impact Nano, Matt was VP Sales and Products at Air Liquide Advanced Materials and held C-level leadership roles at Voltaix and Metem. Matt has a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin and an MBA from INSEAD. He started his career as an industrial research scientist in the Boston area and is a co-inventor of over a dozen U.S. patents.

Tell us about your company.

Impact Nano is a leading tier 2, North American supplier of advanced materials to the semiconductor industry. We develop and manufacture a range of products that are used in the most advanced chip manufacturing processes including EUV photoresists and ALD precursors. Our products enable faster, higher storage density computer chips with lower power-consumption.

Our expertise in ligand, organometallic, silicon and fluorine chemistries, and our ability to safely and sustainably scale-up production of ultra-high purity materials, allow us to support critical innovations in the semiconductor and other high-tech industries. Other applications for our products include nanometer films and coatings for the electronics and automotive industries, energy storage applications, and pharmaceuticals.

To expand these capabilities, we recently created Impact Chemistry, an independent subsidiary for research and development and kilo-scale production in Kingston, Ontario. Impact Chemistry specializes in product development and custom synthesis services for leading companies in the semiconductor industry. The development team has strong expertise in organometallic, inorganic and materials chemistry, safely synthesizing challenging precursors, and developing tailored processes for its customers.

Impact Chemistry’s and Impact Nano’s capabilities and offerings are highly complementary. Our shared focus on the customer positions us to support all their needs through any stage of the product lifecycle from bench-scale R&D work through to larger volume manufacturing.

What problems are you solving?

• Materials Innovation: True innovation requires experience and expertise that can be challenging for companies to resource internally. We discover and develop new materials that enable advancements in semiconductor performance and efficiency.
• Scale-up: Innovation is only the first step. Our ability to take products from discovery to bench-top to industrial scale production allows for atomic-level control and chemical fingerprinting by design.
• Manufacturing: Manufacturing options in North America for these specialized materials are limited. Our fully equipped and qualified manufacturing facility in Orange, MA, allows for large scale production of these materials for our clients.
• Sustainability: We’re committed to pursuing materials advancements that enable the green energy transition, reduce the energy demands of computing, and help to decrease the environmental impact of semiconductor manufacturing processes.

What application areas are your strongest?

Our expertise and product portfolio have positioned us as leading suppliers of the materials for several key end-use applications in the semiconductor industry including:

• EUV photoresist materials
• ALD/CVD precursors for Si, wide band gap, and neuromorphic devices
• Etchants for 3D architectures

Impact Nano has expertise in chemical synthesis and characterization, equipment design and fabrication, process development, chemical packaging, and chemical manufacturing operations. We are ISO-9001certified.

What keeps your customers up at night?

• Achieving breakthroughs in semiconductor materials performance. Chipmakers and equipment manufacturers require new innovative materials to reduce power consumption, increase performance, or reduce area cost. They need to find suppliers who can address the material challenges of creating chip features at the nanometer scale.
• Access to scale-up and manufacturing capabilities. Great innovations are not valuable if they cannot be scaled up and manufactured at high volumes.
• Supply chain reliability. Reliable, ethical, more sustainable supply chains are critical to the industry. Traditional sources of the required materials are often no longer viable for political or environmental reasons. Impact Nano is located in the US and Canada.

What does the competitive landscape look like and how do you differentiate?

The ecosystem of semiconductor materials suppliers exhibits a tiered structure.  Tier 1 suppliers are typically multinational companies that offer a broad array of products, many of which they source from tier 2 suppliers.  Tier 2 suppliers typically possess chemical expertise or equipment, but rarely possess applications insight, scale-up engineering expertise, or the quality mindset required to support atomic level control of thin film deposition.

In contrast, Impact Nano was founded by semiconductor materials supplier veterans who have commercialized several dozen thin film deposition materials and etchants from the lab to HVM in semiconductor fabs. Embedded in the DNA of Impact Nano are the safety and quality mindsets required to safely scale up and automate materials synthesis and purification technologies to serve semiconductor applications.

Our combination of deep expertise in synthetic and analytical chemistry, combined with our scale-up and automation capabilities for large-volume manufacturing give us the ability to provide customers with control of the chemical fingerprint of a material at all scales of manufacture.

Impact Nano has demonstrated the ability to manufacture materials at scales ranging from a few grams to over 700 tons per year for demanding semiconductor applications including silicon epitaxy.

What new features/technology are you working on?

• We are currently working with clients to scale and manufacture a wide range of innovative materials. These include innovative ALD precursors, coating formulations, advanced catalysts, and upstream pharmaceutical reagents.
• Scale-up and automation are key strengths of Impact Nano. We possess in-house fabrication capabilities, including welding, as well as instrumentation and control expertise that enable us to scale up chemistry in half of the time typically required.

How do customers normally engage with your company?

• By contacting our experienced sales team: Our experienced sales professionals are readily available to discuss customer needs and provide tailored solutions.
• Through Tier 1 suppliers. Some end user customers who are eager to control supply chains might ask their local distributor, Tier 1 supplier, or semiconductor equipment partner to work with Impact Nano to manufacture a critical material.
• Meeting us at industry events and trade Shows: We actively participate in industry events and trade shows, showcasing our latest innovations and connecting with clients and partners.
• Engaging us in research and development projects: We often engage in collaborative research projects with clients. An innovative customer project with Impact Chemistry is best viewed as an extension of the client’s R&D team.
• Visiting our websites: impact-nano.com and www.impact-chemistry.com

Also Read:

CEO Interview with Jonathan Klamkin of Aeluma

CEO Interview with Brad Booth of NLM Photonics

CEO Interview with Jonas Sundqvist of AlixLabs

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