Discover how KDF is balancing legacy expertise with forward-looking innovation to shape the future of thin-film deposition.
KDF has been a trusted name in thin-film deposition for decades. How would you describe the company’s current phase of evolution, especially in light of recent leadership changes?
KDF is entering an exciting new chapter in its evolution. While the company has long been recognized as a trusted name in thin-film deposition, the new additions to the team have infused the organization with fresh energy and a forward-looking mindset. A younger, dynamic team is now at the helm - bringing new perspectives, agility, and a strong drive for innovation.
About the Kurt J. Lesker Company
What makes this transition particularly powerful is that it’s not about reinventing the wheel - it’s about refining it. The team is building on KDF’s legacy of proven, reliable technology, and pushing the boundaries of design and performance. By leveraging decades of engineering excellence and customer trust, they’re enhancing system capabilities, improving user experience, and optimizing performance to meet the demands of modern applications.
This phase is not just about continuity; it’s about evolution. KDF is blending deep industry expertise with fresh talent to deliver even better solutions for thin-film deposition, ensuring the company remains a leader for decades.
The Enhanced Rotatable Planar Magnetron (ERPP) remains a key innovation for KDF. How does this platform reflect the company’s long-standing engineering philosophy, and how is it evolving under new leadership?
The Enhanced Rotatable Planar Magnetron (ERPP) perfectly embodies KDF’s engineering DNA - precision, reliability, and innovation rooted in real-world performance. This platform offers unmatched uniformity, scalability, and process flexibility.
The ERPP is especially relevant today because it’s evolving under the guidance of a younger, forward-thinking leadership team. While the core principles - robust design, proven physics, and process consistency - remain unchanged, the new generation is enhancing the platform with smarter controls, improved ergonomics, and tighter integration with modern manufacturing environments.
This evolution reflects KDF’s philosophy of continuous improvement without compromise.
Image Credit: Innoxx/Shutterstock.com
Can you give us a deeper overview of KDF’s Enhanced Rotatable Planar Magnetron (ERPP) technology and how it differs from traditional sputtering methods?
The novel scanning planetary substrate motion is superimposed onto the standard linear translation of the pallet underneath the target. By integrating rotational and translational movement, the planetary architecture averages out the spatial variations in deposition rate across the cathode, reducing the edge-to-center thickness variation.
One of the standout features of ERPP is its ability to achieve thickness uniformity that is better than 1%. What are the key engineering principles or mechanisms behind maintaining such tight deposition tolerances?
The Enhanced Rotating Planetary Pallet (ERPP) ensures that all substrate areas are exposed to the sputtered material from various angles. It averages out the angular distribution of sputtered atoms, while the linear motion compensates for the non-uniform erosion of the target and non-uniform plasma density. Together, these maximize exposure to sputtered flux from all directions and average out any spatial non-uniformities in the sputtering plume.
How adaptable is the ERPP platform for future thin-film challenges, such as new material combinations or next-generation device architectures?
Let me give you an example. Tungsten (W) films are commonly employed as critical layers within frequency-selective components in advanced microelectronic applications. Since the resonant frequency is inversely proportional to the thickness of the constituent layers, including tungsten, precise thickness control is essential for accurate frequency tuning. With its exceptional film uniformity and run-to-run thickness repeatability - on the order of <1% - the ERPP pallet is well-suited for such demanding deposition tasks, offering fine resolution in film thickness across complex multilayer stacks.
With the addition of new scientists and engineers to the team, what fresh perspectives or approaches are being brought to KDF’s core technologies and development roadmap?
Infusing new scientists and engineers into KDF’s team brings creativity, curiosity, and cross-disciplinary thinking to the company’s core technologies.
What’s especially exciting is how these new talents work harmoniously with KDF’s legacy of engineering excellence. Rather than disrupting proven platforms, they’re enhancing them by introducing advanced modeling techniques, data-driven diagnostics, and more agile development cycles. This blend of experience and innovation is accelerating the roadmap, allowing KDF to respond faster to customer needs and emerging market demands.
As device architectures and material demands continue to advance, how is KDF positioning its R&D efforts to stay ahead of future thin-film deposition challenges?
KDF strategically aligns its R&D efforts to anticipate and meet the evolving demands of advanced device architectures and emerging materials. As the industry pushes toward smaller geometries, more complex stacks, and novel substrates, KDF is investing in research that enhances deposition precision and expands process versatility to support next-generation materials - such as advanced oxides, nitrides, and compound semiconductors - while maintaining the reliability and scalability that customers expect.
What kind of customer feedback has KDF received regarding ERPP, and how is that input shaping the next generation of system features or services?
Listening closely to our customers and collaborating with them, has always been our main driver. It allows us to deliver solutions that are more aligned with real-world needs and future challenges. Users of the ERPP and KDF platforms in general consistently praise the system’s reliability, excellent uniformity, and process flexibility. The next-generation tools and features are designed for easier operation and diagnostics, using smarter interfaces and enhancing data connectivity for better process monitoring and integration with factory automation. This feedback-driven approach ensures that KDF isn’t just maintaining its legacy of performance - it’s actively improving it.
How is KDF balancing its commitment to long-standing customers with the push to attract new industries or application spaces for its technologies?
KDF is deeply committed to its long-standing customer base, many of whom have relied on its thin-film deposition systems for decades. These relationships are built on trust, reliability, and a shared history of technical excellence. That commitment remains unwavering - KDF continues to support legacy platforms, provide responsive service, and ensure continuity in performance and parts availability.
At the same time, KDF is actively expanding its reach into new industries and emerging application spaces. With a younger, more agile team driving innovation, the company is exploring opportunities in areas like advanced packaging, photonics, power electronics, and even quantum technologies. This expansion is guided by the same engineering principles that earned customer loyalty in the first place - robust design, process flexibility, and precision.
The key to balancing both priorities lies in modular innovation. KDF is developing systems that can evolve with customer needs - whether that means upgrading existing tools or customizing new ones for novel applications. By listening closely to its legacy customers while engaging new markets with fresh thinking, KDF is positioning itself as a versatile partner for established and emerging technology sectors.
What can the thin-film industry expect from KDF over the next 12–18 months, regarding product evolution and the company’s broader role in the materials ecosystem?
Over the next 12 to 18 months, building on its legacy of precision and reliability, KDF is actively enhancing its core platforms with smarter controls that will be compatible with AI Process monitoring, improved uniformity, and greater modularity to meet the demands of next-generation applications.
KDF is also evolving its role in the broader materials ecosystem. The company is deepening collaborations with research institutions and strategic partners to co-develop solutions tailored to new markets. This includes exploring novel thin-film materials and deposition techniques, aligning with the industry's push toward higher performance, throughput, and environmental responsibility.
With a younger, agile team driving these initiatives, KDF is positioning itself not just as a trusted equipment provider but as a proactive technology partner helping shape the future of thin-film deposition.
About Valerie
Valerie is a twenty-year veteran of the semiconductor industry and leads KDF Technologies. Her career began at ST Microelectronics in France, and from there, she was with Dupont and Toppan in Singapore and China. While with Silverbrook Research in Australia, she developed a MEMS-based super-fast inkjet printer and a lab-on-a-chip device with TSMC (Taiwan). From there, she moved to Hong Kong and then Boston for Sensera Inc. As their Director of Manufacturing and Engineering, Valerie developed MEMS microdevices and microfluidic products, such as a pressure sensor that is now embedded in every heart pump, an implantable glucose sensor, a concussion detection device, and an artificial lung microfluidic chip. From Boston she moved to New York where she held the position of Vice President of Engineering and Quality at Nanotronics. She spearheaded the design and production of advanced inspection equipment supported by AI, in addition to fluorescence microscopy and predictive process control utilizing deep learning models.
Valerie is a graduate of the Physics and Chemistry Graduate School of Bordeaux in France.
This information has been sourced, reviewed and adapted from materials provided by Kurt J. Lesker Company.
For more information on this source, please visit Kurt J. Lesker Company.
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