Gelest, Inc., a Mitsubishi Chemical Group company, marks a new milestone with the groundbreaking of its latest production facility. This new 50,000 square-foot building is located at Gelest’s global headquarters in Morrisville, PA, and is slated for completion by September 2024. During the first phase of production, Gelest plans to hire more than 25 employees, with additional recruitment phases to follow as the operation scales to match increasing customer demand.
Jonathan Goff, Vice President of the Custom Synthesis Division for Mitsubishi Chemical Group and President of Gelest, shared, “We are leveraging the technical expertise of the local workforce and recruiting from local universities. In addition, we are supporting the trend towards on-shoring business, thereby fortifying the U.S. supply chain for crucial materials for advanced manufacturing.” The new facility will enhance Gelest’s production capabilities, supporting a diverse range of customer applications, from microelectronics and medical devices to advanced thermal coatings and mobility.
As part of a strategic collaboration with Lam Research Corp., Fremont, Calif., Gelest will develop and manufacture precursor chemicals for use in Lam’s breakthrough dry photoresist technology for EUV lithography. Dry resist EUV technology is an advanced semiconductor manufacturing technique poised to propel the next generation of logic and DRAM technologies for the semiconductor market. This precursor production will be a key technology operated at a commercial scale in the new building, ensuring a robust supply.
Gelest’s Senior Vice President of Operations, Neville Lockwood, adds, “We’re installing state-of-the-art equipment designed for development, analysis, packaging, and large scale manufacturing of highly specialized chemistries to support advanced technology markets. The quality and process control systems for this facility will meet the rigorous requirements of today’s and tomorrow’s customers and markets.” To assure quality and chemical purity, the production facility incorporates a 3,000 square-foot, ISO 7 clean room featuring advanced analytical instrumentation.
The addition of the new production facility underpins Gelest’s ongoing expansion in Morrisville. The company established its headquarters there in 2001, which now comprises production, R&D, and administration facilities. In 2011, Gelest opened a 154,000 square-foot warehouse, followed by a state-of-the-art R&D center in 2015. With the new production facility, Gelest’s footprint extends to nine buildings in Morrisville, eight on-site, and will augment its Morrisville employee count to as many as 50.
The new production facility will occupy a revitalized U.S. EPA Brownfield site, thanks to US Steel and the support of specialty chemicals.
As the research excellence center of parent company Mitsubishi Chemical Group, Gelest contributes new products and technologies to fundamental materials and five primary markets, including microelectronics. Mitsubishi Chemical, with its network of 295 group companies, maintains a prominent global presence, including multiple sites in Pennsylvania. Two of these sites, Morrisville and Glen Rock, host operations for Gelest.