PerkinElmer and Covalent are partnering to provide analytical instrumentation and services for the semiconductor, electronics, and battery industries. The partnership combines PerkinElmer’s mass spectrometry technologies with Covalent’s expertise in failure analysis.

The collaboration focuses on using Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS/MS) and Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) to identify material failures. These techniques allow manufacturers to detect ultra-trace elemental impurities and organic degradation that can cause performance drops in advanced electronics and energy storage systems.

In semiconductor manufacturing, ICP-MS/MS is used to analyse metallic impurities before they deposit on wafers. It also characterises corrosion and migratory short-circuiting in printed circuit boards. For the battery sector, LC-MS/MS provides electrolyte degradation profiling to diagnose lifetime issues and analyse the chemical stability of coatings.

“This is an important partnership to help us better understand the analysis challenges facing the semiconductor, electronics, and battery industries,” said Paul Davies, Vice President, North America, PerkinElmer. He noted that Covalent would provide the “voice of the customer” to help refine the application of these technologies in failure analysis.

Covalent operates a laboratory with more than 100 analytical techniques, serving the aerospace and medical device sectors alongside electronics. The partnership aims to help customers gain deeper insight into the mechanisms that drive product reliability as material systems become more complex.