Inprentus, Inc.

There is a growing demand for miniaturized optical packages in the space and semiconductor industries. To meet this growing market, Inprentus has developed highly curved diffraction gratings that combine the functions of a lens and a diffraction grating into a single optical element. This 2-in-1 design reduces cost and saves space without sacrificing performance. Diffraction gratings measure the spectrum of light emitted from a material, enabling analysis of its properties. Inprentus’ curved gratings represent a significant technological breakthrough, maintaining focus over a broader wavelength range and providing more accurate spectral measurements. Key applications include space research, EUV lithography for semiconductor manufacturing, and nuclear fusion research in the energy sector. Inprentus uses premium mechanical ruling technology that allows for high precision in the shape and placement of grating grooves. This technology is uniquely suited for the curved surfaces of spherical gratings, ensuring maximum light throughput and minimal distortion. This technology is key for optics for suborbital sounding rocket missions like NASA’s ESIS-II. For NASA, Inprentus will provide six custom-engineered curved spherical gratings, each featuring a unique dispersion profile for the main mission and an additional six spherical gratings for the initial on-ground alignment phase. These gratings are the "engine" of the ESIS-II instrument, allowing it to capture six simultaneous projections of solar activity. This data is then reconstructed using tomographic techniques to provide a 3D view of solar eruptions and magnetic reconnection events at unprecedented temporal and spatial resolution. “Inprentus’ unique curved grating technology is a critical breakthrough, allowing NASA’s spectrometer to be as compact as possible to meet size limitations required to fit inside a research rocket,” explains Cody Jensen, the company CTO. Another key application for curved gratings is in EUV lithography for semiconductor manufacturing. Curved gratings allow for the measurement of the spectrum of light in chip fabrication to ensure that this highly complex machinery is working properly. Through improved metrology techniques facilitated by Inprentus curved gratings, semiconductor patterning efficiency and yield can be significantly improved to provide real-time information about the source plasma conditions. Inprentus founder Peter Abbamonte remarked “Inprentus is uniquely positioned to enable unprecedented optimization of plasma light sources, advancing and accelerating all areas of next-generation chip lithography.” About Inprentus: Founded in 2012 by University of Illinois Professor Peter Abbamonte, Inprentus specializes in the manufacturing of blazed diffraction gratings using a novel, nano-scale mechanical ruling technique. The company provides state-of-the-art optical solutions for synchrotrons, free-electron lasers, semiconductor metrology, and space-based imaging systems worldwide. Inprentus aims to apply 21st century mechanical ruling to solve critical current and future grating-centered challenges. We are committed to excellence, risk, and pushing boundaries by providing state-of-the-art blazed gratings that perform to unprecedented specifications and that enable novel applications. Outcomes include next-generation monochromators, spectrometers, laser systems, and analytical instrumentation in defense applications, as well as ground-breaking consumer experiences enabled by improvements in chip manufacturing and see-through AR waveguides. Inprentus is dedicated to facilitating next-level science and technology by continually enhancing our capabilities with cutting-edge developments, collaborations, and partnerships. For more information, visit Inprentus.com.

Inprentus manufactures advanced custom blazed diffraction gratings for a variety of high-end scientific and technical applications, including for the company’s founding market of soft X-ray materials research. These applications are highly customized, and require a precise production set up for each grating to meet the customer’s complex technical specifications. Each customer only needs one or two of these highly specialized large optical components, and each can take months to produce. In addition to the ability to make highly specialized large diffraction gratings, Inprentus has increasingly been sought after for higher volume production of ultra-precise smaller gratings. Compared to soft X-ray gratings, where the customer’s source light beam has a large area footprint necessitating large gratings, markets in other applications require smaller area gratings. For example, augmented reality requires multiple small gratings on the same substrate in a “step and repeat” process, and sensing or semiconductor applications require identical single gratings on multiple substrates. “Inprentus uses mechanical ruling technology, and this technology is very flexible in terms of handling a “step and repeat” on one substrate or multiple substrates” says Cody Jensen, Chief Technology Officer at Inprentus. “Inprentus has been increasingly contacted by customers to create gratings in higher volume. The challenges for quality assurance are different when going into volume production; however we have welcomed the challenge and have exceeded customer expectations in innovating every step, from design to production set-up and implementation, to metrology”. Inprentus’ first foray into volume production was facilitated by orders from customers in the rapidly emerging area of Extreme Ultra-violet (EUV) lithography, a technology that fabricates ultra-small features on semiconductor chips. This technology is now used by every major computing technology in the world for cutting edge applications like artificial intelligence. “Due to the flexibility of mechanical ruling that a blazed grating provides the market, we are able to provide grating based solutions for applications all the way from Soft X-ray, Deep Ultra-violet and Visible Light, to Infrared and Far-Infrared Light. Inprentus has a very wide spectrum of grating solutions to facilitate innovations at the heart of humanity’s technological future, and the demand is only going to go up from here” says Subha Kumar, Chief Operating Officer of Inprentus. “Delivering these volume orders is a big win for the company but there was never a doubt that we could achieve this. For a company known for making the likes of Ferraris for the optics world, making our product in volume is all about executing the plan” says Jeff MacDonald, the interim CEO. Inprentus designs, manufactures, and sells X-ray and EUV diffraction gratings for a variety of scientific and commercial applications by companies, academic institutions, and government laboratories around the world. Inprentus was founded in June 2012 in Champaign, Illinois, USA to commercialize an innovative, nano-scale lithography technology using mechanical deformation of metallic surfaces. Inprentus aims to apply 21st century mechanical ruling to solve critical current and future grating-centered challenges. Inprentus is a disruptive technology company that will lead the manufacturing of next-generation diffraction gratings. We are committed to excellence, risk, and pushing boundaries by providing state-of-the-art blazed gratings that perform to unprecedented specifications and that enable novel applications. Outcomes include next-generation monochromators, spectrometers, laser systems, and analytical instrumentation in defense applications, as well as ground-breaking consumer experiences enabled by improvements in chip manufacturing and see-through AR waveguides. We are dedicated to facilitating next-level science and technology by continually enhancing our capabilities with cutting-edge developments, collaborations, and partnerships. The Inprentus team truly exemplifies an unwavering belief in the power of can-do creativity, perseverance, and excellence.