The business of ON Semiconductor comprises of silicon technology and the production of chips, both of which are based on a knowledge of the physics of semiconductors. The company has collaborated with physics departments of the Faculty of Science, MU, both in the scientific area (a project called Laboratory of Diagnostics of Defects, Analysis of Silicon Surface and Shallow Layers) and in the area of teaching (courses taught by experts from the company). Our partner donated a significant part of the training equipment of the dust-free laboratory (clean spaces). Also, a number of graduates from the Faculty of Science, MU are employed at the partner company, some of them in leading positions.

We have established cooperation focussed on the determination of the fracture toughness of materials even in the form of coatings and thin films with the Czech producer of electron microscopes Tescan. The method is based on the preparation of precise micropillars and microcantilevers from the analysed material by ion beams and their gradual loading and observing of their cracking behaviour. This enables us to determine the properties of the analysed materials without unwanted errors caused by the effect of the substrate.

Cooperation with the Swiss company PLATIT AG is focussed on the development and analysis of hard wear resistant coatings prepared by magnetron sputtering with applications in material machining. Our main task is the determination of the chemical composition and of the crystalline structure of the coatings that provide the necessary feedback for optimisation of up-to-date coatings as well as for the development of new coatings. 

We have established wide cooperation with Czech company SHM, s.r.o. ranging from deposition process diagnostics, through the development of new coatings and deposition processes to chemical and microstructural analysis of deposited coatings. The long-standing successful partnership can be illustrated by currently running projects funded by the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic and the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic.