Dr. Rantala is the key inventor behind Silecs’ fundamental molecular chemistry and silicon materials technology. Before co-founding Silecs in 2000, he spent the majority of his career developing new molecules and chemicals for organic and inorganic spin-on films, focusing on dielectrics and optical films for semiconductor, CMOS image sensor and display applications. A large part of his research work was done at the University of Arizona, where Dr. Rantala continues to hold a faculty position. Prior to co-founding Silecs he also served at VTT Electronics, the national laboratory of Finland, as Chief Research Scientist and Deputy Head of Manufacturing Technologies, leading activities in advanced materials development. During his tenure at VTT Dr. Rantala led several R&D projects with leading international technology companies mainly in the semiconductor and sensor technology fields. He has authored more than 50 publications, frequently given invited talks and chaired several conferences as well as a authored and co-authored a broad range of patents on novel dielectric materials, lithography processes and optical materials. Dr. Rantala holds a PhD. degree in inorganic chemistry from the University of Oulu.
