Author Archive

We are excited to announce that Korea ITS (KITS) is now an official distributor of Tiptek nanoprobes in South Korea (officially the Republic of Korea)! Founded in 1987, KITS specializes in providing X-ray analysis and advanced technology equipment to researchers and industry professionals. Their expertise and commitment to supporting advanced analysis technologies make them a strong partner to support our growing customer base in the region.

We recently had the opportunity to visit their new office in Songpa, Seoul, where we met the team in person and discussed how Tiptek nanoprobes

We’re excited to announce that Tiptek is now ISO 9001:2015 certified!

ISO 9001:2015 is a globally recognized certification for quality management system standards. This achievement ensures that our processes consistently meet customer and regulatory requirements while reinforcing our dedication to precision, reliability, and continuous improvement.

Achieving this certification was the result of months of preparation— including refining our procedures, strengthening documentation, and ensuring that every aspect of our operations aligns with best practices.

We remain committed to providing nanoprobes that meet or exceed our customers’ needs while continuously improving our products to support

Message from Leadership

Happy New Year from Tiptek!

Years ago, I had the privilege of spending a day with Intel co-founder Gordan Moore and his family.  During his visit, a colleague asked him how many future transistor nodes he could envision at any given time.  “I could only ever see a generation or two ahead,” was his response as he reflected upon his career. That’s quite a comment on the relentless yet unpredictable innovation in the semiconductor industry since at least 25 such advances occurred during his work life. For those of

December 9, 2024 – Today, Tiptek LLC, announces the appointment of Dr. Pamela Pena Martin as Associate Director of Technology Development. Dr. Pena Martin joins the organization with extensive experience in scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), materials science, and grant proposal development and management.

Prior to joining Tiptek, Dr. Pena Martin was a research program manager for the NSF-funded Illinois Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), where she developed and managed a large education and outreach portfolio.

She received her B.S. in Physics from Youngstown State

Thank you to everyone who visited Tiptek’s booth at ISTFA 2024 in San Diego! We enjoyed connecting with the FA community and sharing information about our nanoprobe product lines and latest technological developments.

One of the highlights of the conference was Tiptek CEO Dr. Scott Lockledge’s participation in the FA Technology Roadmap session, where he contributed to the CHIPS SBIR Funding Awardees Sharing portion. Dr. Lockledge presented Tiptek’s CHIPS Act project, focused on developing new and critically-needed Gigahertz nanoprobes able to locate and analyze high frequency electrical faults occurring

November 19, 2024 – Today, Tiptek, LLC announces the appointment of Dr. Joshua Ballard to lead the development of cutting-edge gigahertz frequency nanoprobes for the electrical failure analysis of advanced semiconductors. This effort is funded through the U.S. Department of Commerce CHIPS for America Act NIST metrology program through its SBIR office.

Dr. Ballard has exceptional qualifications to lead this effort. He is an expert in nanofabrication with multiple decades of experience in scanned probe lithography. Possessing multiple patents and publications related to probe processing and creation, Dr. Ballard brings a strong

September 18, 2024 – Tiptek has been awarded Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding from the CHIPS Metrology Program. This SBIR project aims to create a new and critically-needed semiconductor manufacturing metrology: Gigahertz SEM-based nanoprobes.

Current nanoprober technology is limited to DC or megahertz frequency probing, which is orders of magnitude slower than the current chip clock speeds of about six gigahertz and limits the ability of semiconductor failure analysis engineers to locate and analyze high frequency electrical faults. The emergence of next-generation gate-all-around (GAA) transistor technology and ground-breaking

September 15, 2024 – Tiptek has been awarded a U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) to conduct research and development (R&D) work on ultrasharp nanoprobes for semiconductor diagnostics.

This SBIR Phase I project aims to improve nanoprobing by enabling the technique to probe smaller and more complex electrical devices for longer periods of time. The improved semiconductor nanoprobes that are the focus of this project will greatly enable those who develop and apply the most advanced microelectronics for an array of products across the private commercial and

July 19, 2024 – Tiptek received Phase I SBIR funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Advanced Material & Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO). This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project aims to meet a critical national need by developing improved methods to fabricate quantum computers, as part of the EES2 goal of increasing microelectronics energy efficiency one-thousand-fold in the next 20 years.

The potential commercial applications of quantum computers lie in several technology sectors, including cybersecurity, materials and pharmaceuticals, banking and finance, and advanced manufacturing. In particular, three principal applications