Our vision is to synthesize, construct, and commercialize
the world’s most precise manufactured products.
A corporate history of Zyvex
Zyvex Corporation was founded in 1997 to develop and commercialize Atomically Precise Manufacturing technology — ultimately building products with atomic precision. When developed, Atomically Precise Manufacturing should allow flexible manufacturing of a wide variety of products — ranging from designer materials to supercomputers to advanced medical devices.
Founder Jim Von Ehr previously was CEO and founder of a very successful software company which pioneered applications in desktop publishing until the company was bought in 1995. Von Ehr’s background as a software entrepreneur led him to the realization that Atomically Precise Manufacturing — creating “digital matter” — could become a huge new opportunity to manufacture products better, faster, and cheaper than any previous technology.
Zyvex Corporation in its early years did fundamental research into APM, often building its own tools along the way. In recent years, Zyvex took that technology to market by developing commercial products in the nanomaterials and nanomanipulation areas. As those product lines developed, they started to compete with one another for corporate resources. Therefore, in April 2007, Zyvex Corporation reorganized itself into three independent companies: Zyvex Performance Materials LLC, Zyvex Instruments LLC, and Zyvex Labs LLC, by distributing its assets among those companies, and hiring dedicated management for the Materials and Instruments businesses. Zyvex Asia Pte. Ltd. is a fourth company which was started in March 2007, doing research and developing nanotechnology products at its home base in Singapore.
Zyvex Performance Materials LLC sells high performance materials based on its proprietary and revolutionary technology for processing carbon nanotubes into thermoplastic polymers and epoxies. Providing advanced materials with up to 40% greater strength than the best conventional carbon fiber composite materials, ZPM sells to the sporting goods industry (Easton Sports, Aldila), aerospace and defense (a number of US-based defense contractors), and other industries — ranging from consumer products to oil field down-hole applications. ZPM has facilities in Rapid City, South Dakota and Columbus Ohio, having moved to Ohio in summer 2007 to take advantage of Ohio’s materials infrastructure.
Zyvex Instruments LLC is the leading vendor (largest installed base by units) selling advanced nanoprobing tools to the integrated circuit industry. These tools are used for failure analysis on chips at the 90nm and smaller geometries — the most advanced chips in the industry. Zyvex nanoprobers are installed in virtually every major semiconductor company. Zyvex has worldwide distribution, and partners with Singapore-based Caltron Pte. Ltd., for installation, service, and user training across Asia Pacific.
Zyvex Labs LLC focuses on two tasks: develop Atomically Precise Manufacturing, and exploit predecessor company Zyvex Corporation’s technology for microfabrication and 3D microassembly. Coming from Zyvex’s 5-year, $25M NIST ATP project to build 3D assembled microsystems, Zyvex’s MEMS technology is currently being used to fabricate miniature scientific instrumentation such as a mini Scanning Electron Microscope and a mini Atomic Force Microscope, as well as next-generation nanoprobing systems. These systems will be developed for larger marketing partners, manufactured under contract for Zyvex Instruments, or spun off into standalone companies, depending on the product.
Zyvex Asia Pte. Ltd. was formed to collaborate closely with Zyvex Labs as an independent Asian R&D facility, in conjunction with resources in Singapore, such as Nanyang Technology University (NTU), National University of Singapore (NUS), Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), and other A*STAR institutes. Zyvex Asia also is seeking other nanotechnology commercialization opportunities from research institutions across Asia.