Award-winning company, Materion Corporation, continues to grow sustainably following a recent acquisition in South Korea
A global leader in advanced materials solutions, Materion Corporation (Materion) supports a variety of high-performance industries including telecom and data center, energy, automotive, semiconductor, industrial and aerospace. Built on a series of acquisitions, the company has nearly 100 years of expertise and has been known as Materion since 2011. It operates in three business segments – Performance Materials, Precision Optics, and Electronic Materials (EM).
Leo Linehan, President of EM, outlines how his sector is integral to delivering breakthrough solutions: “Materion’s EM business is a leading global supplier of thin film deposition materials, inorganic chemicals, and microelectronic packaging supporting a wide range of markets. 
“Deposition materials make up more than 70 percent of EM’s business. Our product portfolio includes sputtering targets, evaporation materials, and precursor materials for atomic layer deposition (ALD). We are currently ramping production of these precursor materials to support ALD being used in high-performance memory and logic applications, which we’re really excited about.
“We’re also taking advantage of our recent acquisition of a site in South Korea to further grow our target business and give us a footprint close to semiconductor market leaders, allowing us to better partner with them.”
The transaction saw Materion purchase manufacturing assets for tantalum solutions from Konasol, a Korean manufacturer serving the semiconductor and adjacent markets. “The acquisition is a strategic investment that will enable us to better serve semiconductor customers in Asia. It included a newly constructed, state-of-the-art facility with specialized equipment used to produce fully finished tantalum sputtering targets.
“It also helps strengthen our position as a leading supplier of tantalum targets, increasing our capacity to supply critical high-growth deposition materials used in leading-edge semiconductor chips, including those used in high-performance computing and artificial intelligence applications.”
With its headquarters in Mayfield Heights, Ohio, Materion has a legacy of being a North America-based materials provider with manufacturing assets and capabilities across the globe. It employs more than 3000 people worldwide, serving customers in more than 60 countries and, as more reshoring takes place in the US and Europe, it has strategic locations close to customers in both regions.
Regarding manufacturing specifically, Leo says Materion often acts as the bridge from minerals that come out of the ground, with a wide spectrum of physical and chemical properties, to manufacturers: “In order to manufacture our products, we transform, refine and upgrade the materials using melting, pressing and other industrial equipment. This ensures the product is process-capable and controlled enough for one of the most demanding manufacturing environments in the world: semiconductor manufacturing.
“Our factories are a mix of new and old. We’ve completed a series of investments around new, cutting-edge manufacturing equipment, including some of the latest generation, fully automated production equipment. This new equipment has been designed for the demands of Industry 4.0.”
As suppliers to high-tech industries such as data centers and EVs, Materion collaborates closely with its customers when it comes to developing custom material solutions for their applications. Leo says: “We supply the materials that are deposited as thin films onto the semiconductor wafers that are used to support the construction and running of data centers, EVs and cloud computing. Essentially, we develop and provide the materials needed to ensure the optimal performance of semiconductors. Our research and development efforts center on partnering with customers to drive new product and technology innovations.
“Our customer relationships are of primary importance to our business and our production teams. The voice of the customer remains the guiding light in understanding how we can continue to improve and better serve them, as well as what opportunities we may have to meet their needs of tomorrow and beyond.
“We work with our suppliers the same way we work with customers: in close partnership. We work directly in their facilities, we visit them, and we maintain open communication to ensure quality and security of supply. Raw material quality and availability are critical to providing our customers with the high-quality materials they require.”
Alongside global acquisitions and technological advancements, Materion prides itself on the close relationships formed within the organization: “Our people are essential to the success of our business,” Leo explains. We take pride in cultivating and developing a strong sense of competitive spirit within our organization to drive results. We know it’s key to our success in the hyper-competitive semiconductor market. Our culture is rooted in our people and their ability to work safely to meet customer requirements.
“Furthermore, we like to think what sets us apart from competitors is the fact that we focus on fostering cross-functional connections across our customers’ organizations. We believe that the closer the relationships we have with our customers, the better we will be able to support their businesses. Time, speed to market and how rapidly we’re able to commercialize technology are critical in this industry, and we’re able to do this by working in close collaboration with our customers. We place great emphasis on our organization’s core values and our mission to be our customers’ partner of choice for their material needs.”
When asked about the company’s approach to sustainability, Leo describes Materion as being committed to sustainable business practices that ensure the wellbeing of its employees, customers and communities. Materion currently ranks among the top 35 percent of all companies assessed by Ecovadis for the topics of environment, labor and human rights, ethics and sustainable procurement. In addition, it has previously been recognized as a climate leader by USA Today.
“As part of our sustainability program, we support the Ten Principles of the United Nationals Global Compact,” Leo elaborates. “We are fully committed to complying with all applicable environmental laws and regulations and to the responsible use and management of natural resources, and we acknowledge our responsibility to manage operations in a way that minimizes greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and their impact on climate change.
“We are focused on continuing to implement sustainability strategies throughout the organization to reduce our product carbon footprint, increase our use of renewable energy resources, and improve engagement with our customers and stakeholders including CDP reporting and increased disclosures. Some examples of our sustainability programs include five of Materion’s sites using 100 percent green electricity; an increase in the number of sites using renewable energy resources, including solar panels, precious metals recycling programs that offer a circular economy for our customers, with 100 percent recycling for gold and tantalum materials, and partnering with our suppliers to ensure ESG compliance and traceability.”
Looking to the future, Materion is determined to keep building its customer relationships. “When we think about 2026 and beyond, we are committed to supporting our customers on new technologies being developed for the future AI, cloud-driven industry that’s developing,” concludes Leo. “As the world continues to rely more on AI and cloud computing, the need for new technologies and materials to support this rapid growth will be critical. We’re excited to play a role in the next generation of materials needed to power the world.
“Over the next five years, our goal is to be a global leader in electronic materials offering a broad materials portfolio to serve leading semiconductor customers.”