SYNOVA S.A., founded in 1997 and located in Lausanne, Switzerland, manufactures leading-edge laser cutting equipment 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 75 employees including 35 engineers who primarily concentrate on the research of revolutionary material cutting processes, new applications and laser cutting 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 more than 100 machines per year, with a staff of about 100 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 Taiwan. 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.
SYNOVA has been profitable since 1998 and reinvests all of its profits in the continuous improvement of the process, the applications and the laser cutting equipment to the benefit of its customers.
SYNOVA¡¯s strategy is to focus on customized solutions meeting its customer¡¯s demands by combining the latest laser technology breakthroughs and its unique experience in water jet-guided laser beams on highly sensitive materials.
