PerkinElmer and Covalent team up on failure analysis

PerkinElmer and Covalent on July 9 announced a strategic collaboration to pair advanced mass spectrometry tools with failure analysis expertise. The companies aim to help manufacturers in semiconductors, electronics and batteries find root causes of material failures, contamination and performance loss faster.

Why it matters: - Manufacturers in semiconductors, advanced electronics and energy storage need faster ways to find the root cause of material failure and performance degradation. - The collaboration combines instrumentation and specialist analysis to help identify ultra-trace impurities, corrosion, solder-joint deterioration and other failure mechanisms. - The work could improve quality control, reliability testing and root-cause investigations across precision-materials industries.

What happened: - PerkinElmer and Covalent announced a strategic collaboration on July 9 to provide advanced analytical instrumentation and analysis services. - The partnership pairs PerkinElmer’s ICP-MS/MS and LC-MS/MS technologies with Covalent’s failure analysis expertise. - The companies said the goal is to address the growing complexity of failure analysis and materials characterization.

The details: - ICP-MS/MS supports ultra-trace elemental analysis of metallic impurities before they deposit on silicon or compound-silicon wafers. - ICP-MS/MS can also characterize corrosion, solder joint deterioration and migratory short-circuiting in printed circuit boards and electronic packages. - LC-MS/MS provides electrolyte degradation profiling for battery performance analysis. - LC-MS/MS also helps characterize chemical degradation in coatings and epoxy mold compounds used in electronic components. - The collaboration extends to impurity profiling, medical device characterization and broader precision-materials applications where chemical sensitivity is critical. - PerkinElmer’s Paul Davies said Covalent will serve as a voice of the customer and help push the boundaries of ICP-MS/MS, LC-MS/MS and other portfolio technologies in failure analysis, raw material characterization and battery lifetime diagnostics. - Covalent CEO Craig Hunter said the partnership will help customers gain deeper insight into mechanisms that drive performance and reliability.

Between the lines: - The deal reflects a shift toward combining instrumentation with application expertise, not just selling hardware. - That approach matters in markets where tiny chemical changes can determine product reliability, safety and lifetime. - PerkinElmer is also positioning its mass spectrometry platforms across multiple end markets, including batteries, medical devices and semiconductor manufacturing.

What's next: - The companies are expected to use the collaboration to support customers working on failure analysis, raw material characterization and battery diagnostics. - PerkinElmer says the partnership will help advance how its technologies are applied in complex materials testing. - Covalent’s laboratory and method-development capabilities are likely to be central to the joint offering.

The bottom line: - PerkinElmer and Covalent are betting that deeper analytical insight will become a competitive advantage as materials and devices get harder to diagnose.