From one-man-business to international enterprise
The history of silicet began in the year 1983, when industrial designer and engineer Hans Moritz founded his design office.
Specialized in medical devices, laboratory apparatus, investment goods as well as in interface design
and constructing prototypes, 1996/97 Siemens placed the order to develop a wafer holder for them.
Thus the first patented wafer holder BASIC for 4" wafers emerged.
Shortly after Siemens charged the design office hans moritz design with the construction of An electrochemical wet etching device which allowed etching of 8 wafers simultaneously in KOH on verifiable conditions. This bench was the first semi-automatic, closed wet-etching line for electrochemical etching worldwide. Now it was possible to process wafers separately or in batch – cost effectively and with a high standard of constant quality.
For the development of the wafer holders Hans Moritz won the Kassel Prize for Innovation in the year 1999. In the same year his design office received a bulk order for another wet-etching bench. This project clearly showed the limits of capacity to the one-man-business. Therefore Hans Moritz joined forces with Harald Kraus, the chairman of the super-visory board since several years. Thus silicet AG was founded in Lohfelden near Kassel in the beginning of 2000.
In 2003 Regina Mueller joined the company as executive member of the managing board. Since the foundation enormous efforts have been invested in product development and today (2010) silicet wafer holders are multi patented and applied in many big companies as well as in research laboratories and universities. Today silicet's main strength lie in the development of customized solutions in the product segment of wafer holders as well as complete, flexible process units for electroplating and chemical etching.