Innovation Strength Drives Success

Here at WACKER we recognize that progress and innovation are driven by the creativity and dedication of our employees. That’s why we honor outstanding achievements. In September 2020, our Korean employees SeungA Lee and JungEun Lee received the Alexander Wacker Innovation Award for the development of new silicone resins for optical bonding applications.

From over 30 teams competing for the Alexander Wacker Innovation Award, the prize went to two researchers from the Center of Excellence Electronics (COEE) in Seoul. They developed customized solutions based on novel UV-crosslinkable silicone gels for high-quality, non-reflective displays. In a process called optical bonding, silicone gels bond the thin cover glass with the electronic layers beneath. The silicones combine two functions here: their adhesive strength enables firm anchoring of the cover glass. Additionally, the silicone forces the air out of the gap between the two layers, which makes the display anti-reflective.

Tailored Solutions for Many Applications

Delighted with their award: SeungA Lee and JungEun Lee from the Center of Excellence Electronics in Seoul accept the €10,000 Alexander Wacker Innovation Award.

“The prize winners developed UV-crosslinkable silicone resins in close collaboration with a number of electronic-sector customers and, based on their specifications, tailored solutions precisely for various applications,” said Christian Hartel, member of Wacker Chemie AG’s Executive Board, summing up the two scientists’ special achievement. At WACKER, innovation is never an end in itself: the needs of our customers and markets are always the driving force for technological progress.

WACKER Promotes Market-Driven Innovation

WACKER ranks among the world’s most research-intensive chemical companies. We invest over 3% of our sales in Research and Development projects annually. The opening of our global technical center for thermally conductive materials in Shanghai marks our latest milestone: the focus of the lab is R&D of new thermally conductive silicones and other silicone-based solutions. With an average growth of 6% annually, they rank among the fastest growing segments in the materials sector. These Thermal Interface Materials (TIMs) are increasingly being used in numerous applications, such as the automotive industry (especially e-mobility), as well as consumer electronics and telecommunication. The opening of the new TIM technical center in China will enable WACKER to respond to the needs of target markets and their customers around the world even faster in future. WACKER already offers many tried-and-tested products for electronic applications requiring heat dissipation. These include conductive gap fillers, encapsulants and adhesives.