Silicon pioneer Veikko Lindroos made Okmetic’s story possible

Okmetic celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. To celebrate the anniversary, we will publish articles about Okmetic’s 40-year history. In the first part, we explain how Professor Emeritus Veikko Lindroos, who worked at Helsinki University of Technology, relates to Okmetic’s story.

The pioneer of silicon technology, Professor Emeritus Veikko Lindroos (7.10.1938–27.11.2019), became interested in silicon as a material already in the 70s after visiting an international conference. He understood that silicon is the material of the future and semiconductor products are becoming more common. He was also convinced that it was possible to manufacture the material in Finland.

In 1976, Lindroos founded Semiconductor Metallurgy Ltd together with his brother Leo Lindroos and Jaakko Anttila, Jorma Kivilahti, Eino Poutiainen, Eero Ristolainen and Markku Tilli. The company’s line of business was defined as production, research and design work in the semiconductor metallurgical industry for Finland and export.

Various profitability calculations and market research were carried out on behalf of the company, but obtaining funding for the operations was challenging. The reports were not sufficient for the Industrial Development Fund, so Lindroos visited Outokumpu’s head office several times to meet Deputy President Jorma Honkasalo.

Several discussions were fruitful: Honkasalo also negotiated other companies to join the project, which inspired Nokia to cooperate. The companies were ready to commit to the industrial production of silicon wafers.

The high status of large corporations and the fact that technological development was an important political topic at the time also convinced the Finnish government in 1980. The Ministry of Trade and Industry granted a subsidy of one million Finnish marks for a semiconductor metallurgical project involving five men: Veikko Lindroos, Nokia’s representative Pauli Immonen and Jorma Honkasalo, Pentti Rautimo and Pekka Rautala from Outokumpu.

In the beginning, research on the project was carried out in the premises of the Helsinki University of Technology in Otaniemi. A pilot production line was built in the HUT laboratory, and silicon wafers were successfully test-marketed.

The technology was later transferred to Outokumpu Group through a separate agreement.