EMD Electronics opens Wisconsin R&D facility for chip materials
EMD Electronics, the North American electronics arm of Merck KGaA, has opened a new 38,000-square-foot research and development facility at its Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin site. The centre is focused on advanced materials for next-generation semiconductor manufacturing and forms part of a broader $200 million multi-year investment in the company's US footprint.
The facility houses eight purpose-built laboratories covering the full product development lifecycle: discovery, development, qualification, analytical development, purification, packaging and hazard testing. By co-locating synthesis, scale-up and technology transfer capabilities on a single site, EMD Electronics says it can move new materials from initial discovery through to customer qualification faster than was previously possible under a more distributed model.
What the facility adds
Bing Han, Executive Vice President and Head of Thin Films at EMD Electronics, said the semiconductor industry was entering a period where materials innovation could no longer be treated as a separate upstream activity. "Success increasingly depends on combining materials discovery, process expertise, and scale-up capabilities," Han said. "This new facility brings together the capabilities needed to work alongside our customers on their most complex materials challenges and accelerate innovation from the lab to commercial production."
The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation is collaborating with EMD Electronics on the expansion, with the state body's secretary and CEO, John W. Miller, citing the facility as a source of highly skilled jobs and a signal of confidence in Wisconsin's manufacturing base. EMD Electronics did not disclose the number of positions to be created, nor name any specific customers whose roadmaps will benefit from the new centre.
The facility is also designed to LEED Gold certification standard and is among the company's laboratories powered by renewable energy, a commitment it says reduces the environmental footprint of research operations.
Market context and competitive positioning
The Sheboygan Falls site sits within a larger $1 billion, five-year US investment programme that EMD Electronics announced in 2021. Alongside the Wisconsin expansion, which includes a further phase due for completion in 2027, the company has recently completed projects in Carlsbad, California, and Catoosa, Oklahoma.
The push into advanced materials R&D reflects a structural shift in the semiconductor supply chain. As chipmakers push towards gate-all-around transistors, high-numerical-aperture extreme ultraviolet lithography and three-dimensional packaging, the chemical and materials layer has become a significant point of differentiation. EMD Electronics competes in this space against a small field of specialist suppliers including JSR, Entegris, CMC Materials and, in deposition precursors, Air Liquide and Linde. All are investing in local manufacturing and R&D capacity in response to US CHIPS Act incentive structures and customer pressure to shorten supply chains.
The CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 allocated $52 billion for domestic semiconductor manufacturing and research, with portions directed at the materials and equipment ecosystem. Suppliers able to demonstrate onshore R&D capacity and technology transfer workflows are increasingly better positioned to qualify for customer preferred-supplier status under programmes linked to CHIPS-funded fabs being built by TSMC, Samsung and Intel across the United States.
Outlook
EMD Electronics has not disclosed which specific materials classes will be prioritised at the new Wisconsin centre, beyond a broad reference to its portfolio of specialty gases, deposition materials, and planarisation and patterning chemistries. Investors and customers will be watching for named customer qualifications and technology-transfer milestones as the second phase of the Sheboygan Falls investment approaches its 2027 completion date.