Executive summary
ICP-MS/MS and LC-MS/MS technologies will be combined with Covalent's failure analysis services under a partnership covering batteries, semiconductors and electronics. The work will examine ultra-trace elemental impurities, organic degradation, corrosion, solder joint deterioration and electrolyte breakdown.
News Synopsis
United States-based analytical and testing technology provider PerkinElmer has partnered with Covalent to integrate laboratory instrumentation with materials characterization and failure analysis capabilities. The collaboration will support applications in battery production, semiconductors, electronics, and other precision-materials sectors. Its scope includes detecting material defects, chemical contamination, component deterioration, and declining performance. Shelton, Connecticut, and Sunnyvale, California, were named in the companies’ recent announcement.
The partnership will combine Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry, including ICP-MS/MS, with Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry, or LC-MS/MS. These analytical platforms will be used to investigate ultra-low-level elemental impurities and organic deterioration pathways. The companies plan to apply the shared capabilities to manufacturing quality assurance and root-cause investigations. Covalent will also contribute insights into analytical problems raised by customers in the battery, semiconductor, and electronics markets.
PerkinElmer's ICP-MS/MS technology will be used to detect metallic impurities before they deposit on silicon or compound-silicon wafers. It can also be applied to corrosion, solder joint deterioration and migratory short-circuiting in printed circuit boards and electronic packages. These failure mechanisms can affect component performance and manufacturing quality. The partnership will combine this instrumentation with Covalent's laboratory analysis and application services.
For battery applications, PerkinElmer's LC-MS/MS technology will support electrolyte degradation profiling and battery performance analysis. The technique will also examine chemical degradation in coatings and epoxy mold compounds used in electronic components. Related applications include impurity profiling, medical device characterization and other precision-materials testing where low-level chemical detection is required. The announcement does not specify individual battery manufacturers, projects or commercial deployments.
Paul Davies, Vice President for North America at PerkinElmer, said the partnership would help the company understand analytical challenges across the semiconductor, electronics and battery industries. He also identified failure analysis, raw material characterization and battery lifetime diagnostics as areas where customer feedback could inform the use of PerkinElmer technologies. Craig Hunter, CEO of Covalent, said the partnership would combine analytical instruments with application knowledge to investigate mechanisms affecting performance and reliability.
PerkinElmer employs 5,500 people across 35 countries and provides analytical and testing technologies, pharmaceutical specialty services and omics services. Its activities cover life sciences, applied and industrial markets, and food testing. Covalent provides materials characterization and failure analysis services across semiconductor, electronics, battery, aerospace, medical device and materials applications. The company states that it offers more than 100 analytical techniques.