Within all segments of microtechnology, products are becoming increasingly precise and smaller. This also means that smaller dirt particles are becoming increasingly disruptive to yield and performance, which therefore increases the importance of cleanliness control. Fastmicro in the Dutch town of Geldrop, which has been trading for five years now, supplies inspection equipment, software and services to customers to "objectify" whether their products and processes are clean. In doing so, the company sets a new standard, in close collaboration with an ecosystem around cleanliness competence. In the coming period, the focus will be entirely on scaling up.
Year by year, the theme of cleanliness is becoming increasingly important, and the chain is growing in terms of the number of OEMs, suppliers and cleaning and inspection equipment. A lot has happened since Fastmicro developed a standard together with the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) and a launching customer back in 2020, which it further expanded in the years that followed.
"At the time there were a couple of systems on the market, now there are more than sixty, in eleven countries. All this equipment comes with standard service contracts plus, more and more so, a software solution. This ensures that a customer not only receives an analysis, but it can also convert this data into easily understandable information and exchange it with other systems,"
CEO, Erik Vermeulen.
INVESTMENT ROUND
"In 2023, ten OEMs were using our equipment, a huge step for us, while training and research institutes started to join as well," Vermeulen says. Soon the question arose as to whether Fastmicro should also start serving the customers of OEMs, the fabs. After all, they have the greatest opportunity to increase their yield. To reach that market, we made an initial round of investments in May last year to set up regional sales and service channels, and to also further develop our range so that it's suitable for that target group, thus placing even higher demands on our global presence, advice and service." These are products that are approximately ten times larger and more expensive than systems sold by Fastmicro previously; this opportunity is a main focus in 2025. Vermeulen's ambition is to be an OEM that has a major impact on reducing production losses, reworks and recalls and to increase yield, output and uptime in the production environment. "A large part of production losses can be prevented by inspecting earlier and more frequently for contamination. Our equipment measures cleanliness i.e. counts the number of particles on the surface. We objectify this analysis and can make it efficiently scalable in production."
THE SAME SENSITIVITY
It started with a product that could qualify products as 'clean', for mechanical engineering, equipment construction, but also for assembly and individual parts. We subsequently took the step towards clean processes. It's true that a lot is being invested in cleanrooms in the region. However, a clean space and the clean air in it doesn't mean that the product or process remains clean. Currently only our equipment makes it possible to monitor and validate the cleanliness of processes and products with the same sensitivity as the cleanliness of air and thus optimize their yield. To qualify products and processes, the equipment measures particles that settle and lie on surfaces, not those in the air. This is not an in-depth analysis, but rather feedback on statistical process control and where in the production process particles are located.
“This input makes the customer’s analysis equipment work faster, meaning he doesn’t need to invest as much money and energy consumption for the filtration systems in his cleanrooms. He can both reduce his costs and obtain analyses more often and quicker to get to the heart of the contamination issue.”
SHARING KNOWLEDGE
The third pillar of the transformation that Fastmicro is currently undergoing as a scale-up is the acquisition of knowledge about particle contamination control in supply chains. "We notice that customers and partners have a need to use that knowledge more broadly. That's why we work closely with the partners to further develop and share that knowledge and to ultimately strengthen the entire ecosystem," Vermeulen says. Point is that the new standard hasn't yet been adopted in the Netherlands as a whole or indeed globally. "We, the Netherlands and Europe, can become even more competitive if we standardize and share contamination control application knowledge better internationally, so that everyone operates at the same level," the CEO explains. "A key enabler for our growth is the speed at which knowledge and insights are adopted to implement particle cleanliness control more in the chain. People need to become aware of new opportunities, what can be achieved through these opportunities and share the business case with each other."
A number of new ISO standards have been established in recent years, which Fastmicro has embraced, implemented and integrated into its own systems. The company has even placed a particle calculator on its website to share knowledge with customers. "To make them understand what certain cleanliness standards mean in terms of specifications. And vice versa, if they know how many particles are on a surface, it's also clear what standards they should apply to this. This knowledge is essential for the adoption of these new cleanliness levels in industry."
BROADER INTEREST
Fastmicro has now launched three products on the market in close collaboration with system suppliers. The company itself focuses on development, sales and service, whereas many other activities are outsourced as much as possible to scale up and professionalize as quickly as possible. The 2020 sample scanner, produced by KMWE, has now been developed further and equipped with a new interface and additional software for, for example, the export of information to MES systems. The particle fallout scanners to monitor clean processes, produced by TBRM Manufacturing Solutions, was launched in 2023. And the successor to the second generation of the particle defect inspection systems, made by Mevi, followed in 2024. "This will take us towards fully automated handling to meet the high demands in the fab world. Our imaging solution is a stationary system, and as such it is fast, extremely clean and robust," Vermeulen says. "And if the measuring system can keep up with production and is no longer the delaying factor on the line, its implementation becomes even more interesting."
The early signs are positive, as interest is also emerging in other markets. "In aerospace, automotive, batteries and pharmaceuticals, in fact in all segments of the microtechnology market, the first early adopters are now knocking on the door," Vermeulen notes with satisfaction. In the coming period, the full focus will therefore be on scaling up in Europe, the US and Asia. This through collaboration with partners and our own capacity; we currently have a team of around forty people. "Since our start in 2019, we've grown 20 to 50 percent each year. And we're heading for a double wave: the market is growing and in it the market of cleanliness requirements."
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