Approximately eight years ago, we were given the exclusive license to use the Kayex brand name and became the one and only owner of Kayex technology. That was a strong foundation on which to regrow our company, but it was made more so by the fact that Linton Crystal was formed by several Kayex employees with decades of experience growing silicon crystals in CZ growers. The involvement of Kayex staff in research and development over the years has made it possible for us to continue to support our customers in the installation and maintenance of growers and the fine-tuning of recipes and processes for optimal crystal growth. Of course, it has also been of tremendous value in the development of several new 300mm machines.

“Over the years, we’ve taken the proprietary Kayex technology we were entrusted with and added engineering and service expertise, supported by a strong manufacturing infrastructure and sales team,” explains Todd Barnum, COO of Linton. “Since taking over the Kayex brand, we have tripled in size as a company and introduced nine new models of grower, as well as several updates and retrofits.”

Linton’s research and development is heavily customer-driven, aimed at both the development of new machines and technologies and supporting the Kayex technology still used in the marketplace. “We have a lot of ideas for what we think the industry needs and where technology is going. For example, we’ve recently hired a software engineer focused on AI as we’d like to incorporate machine learning into our systems,” explains Brian Repman, software and controls manager. “But we prioritize development of the advancements and upgrades customers are asking for and talking about the most.”

Among the most recent releases are retrofits to support older Kayex growers. “As the sole owner of the Kayex technology, we are the only company able to truly develop retrofits, upgrades, or replacement parts for these machines. In the past couple of years, we’ve developed a targeted retrofit image processing system, as well as a more comprehensive retrofit of the legacy consoles,” Repman says.

Through the retrofits, customers have been able to bring their older machines into the supported software framework. It also gives them access to the new features Linton is actively developing for that framework, such as the recently released melt gap control software. More updates will follow.

“We were given a very strong technology base when we acquired the Kayex intellectual property,” says Todd Barnum, COO of Linton Crystal Technologies. “I couldn’t be prouder of where our people have taken that knowledge and how they’ve created something that will improve our customers’ processes and efficiencies into the future.”