Working with the Materials Foundry

The Materials Foundry is designed for customers to discover their own solutions and then collaborate with Brewer Science to optimize these solutions for production. This process will usually follow the four steps outlined below.

Step 1: Searching the Materials Foundry Catalog

The best way to begin working with the Materials Foundry is to search the online product catalog for materials that might meet your application requirements. You can search by known applications or by desired properties.

The search engine will select the materials from the catalog that are the most suitable options for your application. We recommend that you then review the Research Product Information Sheets for the options yielded by the search because they often contain more detailed information about product performance and properties that will guide you toward selecting your final material(s).

Research Product Information Sheets and Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) can be downloaded in PDF format (here). After you have made your final selection(s) for evaluation, you can purchase them in 250-ml or 1-L quantities directly through the Materials Foundry website or by having your organization submit a purchase order for the items and quantities you are seeking.

Step 2: Evaluating Your Material Choices

The most effective way to screen candidate materials for your specific application is for you to perform initial evaluations in your environment, using your equipment, process conditions, and device substrate.

The Research Product Information Sheet provides application and curing parameters for your material choice. These parameters are suggested as a starting point for building your process, but you will likely want to explore other conditions to improve performance. We encourage you to track and share the results of your evaluations with us so that we can design new materials or help you better utilize our current products in your application.

Step 3: Interacting with Brewer Science Technologists about Your Needs

If you want further guidance on how to use our products, you can have a dialogue with one of our material specialists online or by phone after registering on the Materials Foundry website.

After registering, you may request a Non-Disclosure Agreement with Brewer Science if you need to share confidential information about your application with us so that we can better assist you.). We have a standard 2-way NDA form that we will provide at your request. Your organization may also submit an NDA to us for consideration so that more in-depth discussions can begin.

Step 4: Requesting Custom Products and Formulations

If you need a modified version of a material, for example, a lower-viscosity formulation of one of our catalog products, you may request a custom formulation by registering on the Materials Foundry website and submitting your request, detailing the specific parameters that you would like to have modified. There will be an up-charge for supplying custom formulations.

If no product in our catalog meets your application requirements, you may ask us to develop a custom product for your needs. We normally expect customers to fund at least a portion of the development cost in such situations. The cost of sponsored development will depend on the anticipated challenges in delivering the desired product outcome, the time and level of resources that will have to be applied to achieve the outcome, the level of participation of the customer in testing intermediate experimental products and providing evaluation results back to Brewer Science, and the potential future sales volume of the custom product. Inquiries about custom product development programs can be made after registering on our website.

We will also consider custom production of specialty materials developed, for example, by research institutions that do not have the means to manufacture and supply high-performance thin-film materials.