Business Oregon awards $1.2 million to Applied Physics Technologies to support Oregon Innovation and the semiconductor industry

Business Oregon is pleased to award Applied Physics Technologies (APT) with a $1,200,000 grant from the Emerging Opportunity Fund. This award will help the company build a new cleanroom and make improvements to the company’s headquarters in McMinnville, Oregon. This award was made possible through the support of the McMinnville Economic Development Partnership (MEDP) and Oregon Manufacturing Extension Partnership.

APT is a small, Oregon-grown, high-tech manufacturer that produces critical components for advanced capital equipment used in the semiconductor and life science industries. They specialize in the design and manufacture of thermionic, field emission and thermal field emission electron sources, made from monocrystalline materials refined in-house.

Business Oregon is pleased to support a highly innovative Oregon-based company that provides tremendous value to its local and regional communities, said Sophorn Cheang, Director of Business Oregon. We are committed to supporting Oregon’s semiconductor industry and this investment will help our state gain a competitive advantage as a global leader in semiconductor manufacturing and advanced manufacturing. Business Oregon will continue to support innovators like APT that provide Oregonians with new, high-paying jobs that last for generations.

Applied Physics Technologies is a leader in innovative product development and MEDP is encouraged by the significant investment from APT and Business Oregon, said Patty Herzog, executive director of MEDP. This award demonstrates the states’ unwavering commitment to investing in companies like APT that are leading an innovation-based economy in McMinnville. This grant is the result of a committed partnership between Business Oregon, SEDCOR and MEDP that provides regional benefits and preserves high-paying jobs.

APT has designed and patented products at the cutting edge of electron emission and must continue to innovate and improve its processes to maintain and increase its market share. Customers demand ever higher product quality and ever lower failure rates. APT sees opportunities to develop new product lines that cannot be made in the company’s current factory.

There is a limit to the volume of product we can produce in our current structure, said APT President and CEO Marcus Straw. In addition, the quality increasingly demanded by our customers will be unattainable without a major facility upgrade, effectively rendering our most demanding markets unserviceable. The future of APT depends on this project.

APT’s products operate in an ultra-high vacuum with high applied electric fields. Particle contamination is thus the main cause of product failures during operation. The company currently has a clean room of 975 square meters where the most sensitive production takes place. This clean area is largely uncontrolled, has no ISO rating and is too small. With this grant, APT will build a new 2,670 square meter ISO 7 certified cleanroom. The company will also update the company’s server room, renovate their office space and make improvements outside of the new cleanroom that will improve workflow.

Our new cleanroom will enable us to both increase our capacity and improve our quality, nearly doubling our revenue by 2027, adding an estimated $8.8 million in wages, benefits and payroll taxes to the Oregon economy said Marcus Straw, president and CEO of APT.

APT is supporting Oregonians by adding approximately 30 new high-paying jobs, paid on-the-job training, and welcoming student interns from Oregon’s higher education institutions. APT is also committed to environmental sustainability in their business practices. Read more about APT at AP Tech. com.

Learn more about Oregons Business Programs at oregon.gov/biz.

JUNE 1, 2023 By Business Oregon Press Release https://development.oregon4biz.com/acton/rif/14786/s-067f-2306/-/l-0007:4d5c/q-000c/showPreparedMessage?sid=TV2:iOKkb2Rpk