SYNOVA S.A., founded in 1997 and located in Lausanne, Switzerland, manufactures cutting-edge laser systems based on the water jet-guided laser, a new laser technique which was invented by the founders in the early nineties at the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, and thereafter patented by the company owners.
Since March 1998, various industries in Europe, Middle East, Asia and North America use this new laser process for production. Its principal advantages of a long working distance and very efficient cooling, pave the way for a considerable amount of new applications in the domain of sensitive material processing making SYNOVA the first company to introduce the laser into wafer dicing.
SYNOVA presently has 50 employees including 25 engineers who primarily concentrate on the research of revolutionary material cutting processes, new applications and new equipment. Whereas the production is largely outsourced through world-class subcontractors, SYNOVA undertakes the final assembly and testing in a modern 3000 m2 facility, allowing the manufacture of up to 100 machines a year.
In two or three years SYNOVA will likely produce between 50 and 100 machines per year, with a staff of about 75 employees, including 20 dedicated to customer support in Europe, USA and Asia. To that end, SYNOVA has set up local subsidiaries for optimized customer support as well as MMCs (micro-machining centers) in the USA, Japan, Korea and Taipei. These MMCs will serve as competence centers for demonstration, sample testing and application development. In addition, these facilities will offer regional micro-machining services for the semiconductor and related microelectronics industries.