en.Wedoany.com Reported - Empa spin-off Swiss Cluster has won the 2026 Swiss Economic Award in the "Industry/Production" category. The company specializes in developing vacuum thin-film equipment that integrates physical vapor deposition and atomic layer deposition, protecting complex components or manufacturing functional films with excellent mechanical properties and heat resistance. Its clients include global research institutions, the watchmaking industry, electronics manufacturers, and optical companies.
Swiss Cluster is based in Spiez, Switzerland, and was co-founded by materials scientist Carlos Guerra and electrical engineer Kevin Lücke in the Empa Laboratory for Mechanics of Materials and Nanostructures, led by Johann Michler. The company was established at Empa in Thun at the end of 2020. Initially, the company focused on developing stronger, more durable thin films. Currently, Swiss Cluster employs 15 people in Spiez and is supported by a global network of partners. Its machines are used in research institutions and companies in Switzerland, the United States, and the United Kingdom, with orders ready for delivery to France, Brazil, Italy, and China.
Thin-film technology has a wide range of applications, including protecting sensitive components from wear and corrosion, reducing lens glare, manufacturing specialized filters, imparting color-changing effects to watch parts, enhancing the biocompatibility of medical implants, and in microelectronics for transistors, chips, and display manufacturing. A common method for producing thin films is physical vapor deposition (PVD), where a starting material is evaporated in a vacuum chamber and condensed onto a substrate. Swiss Cluster combines PVD with atomic layer deposition (ALD). Unlike PVD, the ALD process achieves chemically reactive coatings with atomic precision by alternately introducing gaseous precursors. ALD has been used in industry for about 20 years and is a relatively new process.
Carlos Guerra, CEO of Swiss Cluster, stated that ALD can produce extremely thin and uniform coatings, providing protection against corrosion and oxidation, while PVD can create very hard coatings. Combining the two processes allows for the production of durable, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant films. The company integrates ALD and PVD systems in a single vacuum chamber, enabling researchers to complete nanolayer structures in just a few hours that previously took a week.
Swiss Cluster is not the first company to combine PVD and ALD; this combination has been applied in the semiconductor industry. However, Guerra noted that Swiss Cluster focuses on other industry markets. For customers interested only in the ALD process, the company offers a second machine that enables "Batch ALD," a variant of atomic layer deposition that is faster and can coat multiple components or large, complex parts simultaneously. Swiss Cluster's machines are compact, easy to install and operate, and aim to lower the barrier to high-tech processes. The company also offers coating services in Spiez, working closely with customers so they can trial the coating process without immediately investing in a new machine. Swiss Cluster has had customer involvement since its inception, growing organically primarily through equipment and service sales, and only received its first investment in 2025. The jury of the Swiss Economic Forum praised this spin-off for combining scientific excellence, industry understanding, and entrepreneurial execution.
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