---
title: "Smoltek celebrates 20 years in nanotechnology"
canonical_url: "https://www.smoltek.com/smoltek-celebrates-20-years-in-nanotechnology/16275/"
date: 2025-12-12
author: "Fredrik Liljeberg"
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categories:
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    url: "https://www.smoltek.com/category/ir-blog-posts.md"
tags:
  - name: "advanced chips"
    url: "https://www.smoltek.com/topic/advanced-chips.md"
  - name: "capacitors"
    url: "https://www.smoltek.com/topic/capacitors.md"
  - name: "carbon nanofibers"
    url: "https://www.smoltek.com/topic/carbon-nanofibers.md"
  - name: "carbon nanostructures"
    url: "https://www.smoltek.com/topic/carbon-nanostructures.md"
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    url: "https://www.smoltek.com/topic/celebration.md"
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  - name: "innovation"
    url: "https://www.smoltek.com/topic/innovation.md"
  - name: "nanotechnology"
    url: "https://www.smoltek.com/topic/nanotechnology.md"
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    url: "https://www.smoltek.com/topic/semiconductor.md"
  - name: "sustainability"
    url: "https://www.smoltek.com/topic/sustainability.md"
  - name: "sustainabletech"
    url: "https://www.smoltek.com/topic/sustainabletech.md"
---

# Smoltek celebrates 20 years in nanotechnology

Over two decades, Smoltek has devel­oped from a research-dri­ven deep tech com­pa­ny to an indus­tri­al play­er with ground­break­ing nan­otech­nol­o­gy for both semi­con­duc­tors and hydro­gen – val­i­dat­ed by lead­ing glob­al part­ners and on its way to commercialization.

Much water has flowed under the bridge since the com­pa­ny was found­ed, and today Smoltek is devel­op­ing a new gen­er­a­tion of ener­gy and cost-effi­cient capac­i­tors for advanced chips in the semi­con­duc­tor indus­try, as well as cost-sav­ing elec­trodes for elec­trolyz­ers and fuel cells in the hydro­gen industry.

But let’s take a trip down mem­o­ry lane.

Here’s what Shafiq Kabir said about why he took the ini­tia­tive to found the com­pa­ny back in Decem­ber 2005: 

> *“I found­ed the com­pa­ny out of sci­en­tif­ic curios­i­ty and with the ambi­tion to devel­op tech­no­log­i­cal solu­tions based on nanos­truc­tures that can be use­ful in many indus­tri­al areas. The rea­son was my ambi­tion to dri­ve my research results in nan­otech­nol­o­gy to cre­ate new inno­va­tions for use in indus­try. By switch­ing to research and devel­op­ment on a com­mer­cial basis, we want­ed to make the pos­si­bil­i­ties of nan­otech­nol­o­gy avail­able on a much larg­er scale.*

## [](https://www.smoltek.com#20-years-of-innovation-in-the-service-of-nanotechnology)20 years of innovation in the service of nanotechnology

Since its incep­tion, Smoltek has method­i­cal­ly built and patent­ed a com­pre­hen­sive tech­nol­o­gy plat­form based on cat­alyt­ic growth of con­duc­tive nanos­truc­tures, with much of the com­po­nent and appli­ca­tion devel­op­ment focused on car­bon nanofibers and their var­i­ous prop­er­ties – which have supe­ri­or elec­tri­cal, mechan­i­cal and ther­mal strength. 

The tech­nol­o­gy increas­es the reac­tion sur­face for chem­i­cal and elec­tri­cal process­es on a sub­strate by sev­er­al mag­ni­tudes and enables prod­ucts that are sig­nif­i­cant­ly more com­pact, ener­gy-effi­cient and cost-effec­tive than con­ven­tion­al solutions. 

For instance, if you were to cov­er a Rubik’s Cube with Smoltek’s con­duc­tive car­bon nanofibers, the avail­able sur­face area for chem­i­cal and elec­tri­cal process­es would be as large as a foot­ball field. That is the great advan­tage of Smoltek’s car­bon nanotechnology.

![Cnf equivalent surface area the pitch](https://www.smoltek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/cnf-equivalent-surface-area-the-pitch-1200x959.webp)

## [](https://www.smoltek.com#smoltek-brief-background-and-development)Smoltek – brief background and development

Smoltek has built up an exten­sive IP port­fo­lio and grad­u­al­ly val­i­dat­ed the tech­nol­o­gy. Dur­ing the ear­ly years, the car­bon growth process and the first pro­to­types in semi­con­duc­tors were devel­oped. Between 2012 and 2016, work was deep­ened towards semi­con­duc­tor appli­ca­tions such as inter­con­nects and inte­grat­ed capac­i­tors. The big break­through came in 2017 when the indus­try showed strong inter­est in Smoltek’s ultra-thin capac­i­tor technology.

Today, Smoltek is a pub­licly trad­ed com­pa­ny with three subsidiaries:

- Smoltek AB: Holds the com­pa­ny’s intel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty rights (patents and know-how).
- Smoltek Semi AB: Dri­ves devel­op­ment with­in semi­con­duc­tors and devel­ops extreme­ly minia­tur­ized capac­i­tors (CNF-MIM) with high per­for­mance intend­ed to be placed in advanced chips where space is min­i­mal and require­ments are high. The cus­tomers for these capac­i­tors con­sist of a few very large man­u­fac­tur­ers of advanced semi­con­duc­tor components.
- Smoltek Hydro­gen AB: Devel­ops solu­tions for the hydro­gen indus­try. In par­tic­u­lar, the com­pa­ny devel­ops elec­trodes intend­ed for elec­trolyz­ers and fuel cells in the hydro­gen indus­try with a tech­nol­o­gy that max­i­mizes the use of expen­sive pre­cious met­als while reduc­ing the con­tact resis­tance between dif­fer­ent met­al lay­ers. The cus­tomers are found among com­po­nent man­u­fac­tur­ers in the hydro­gen industry.

## [](https://www.smoltek.com#the-possibilities-of-the-nanotechnology-platform)The possibilities of the nanotechnology platform

Smoltek devel­ops appli­ca­tions based on nan­otech­nol­o­gy to solve advanced mate­r­i­al engi­neer­ing chal­lenges. By grow­ing nanos­truc­tures direct­ly on a mate­r­i­al, the con­tact sur­face can be increased tens of thou­sands of times. 

**Prop­er­ties of car­bon nanofibers**

- Three-dimen­sion­al effect that max­i­mizes the avail­able sur­face area for a giv­en substrate
- Equiv­a­lent sur­face area expands x‑fold
- Excel­lent elec­tri­cal conductivity
- Excel­lent mechan­i­cal properties
- Excel­lent ther­mal properties
- Enables high­er pow­er in cir­cuits (semi­con­duc­tors)
- Enables low­er ener­gy con­sump­tion (semi­con­duc­tors)
- Enables small­er form fac­tors (semi­con­duc­tors)
- Reduces the pro­por­tion of cat­a­lyst par­ti­cles (hydro­gen)
- Increas­es pro­ton through­put (hydro­gen)
- Max­i­mizes the uti­liza­tion of cat­a­lysts (hydro­gen)
- Reduces the con­tact resis­tance between dif­fer­ent met­al lay­ers (hydro­gen)
- Increas­es the avail­able sur­face area for chem­i­cal and phys­i­cal processes
- Cre­ates new oppor­tu­ni­ties for mate­r­i­al engi­neer­ing challenges
- Sub­strate inde­pen­dence – car­bon atom growth pos­si­ble on most indus­tri­al substrates

**Indus­tri­al tech­nol­o­gy areas pos­si­ble for Smoltek’s nanotechnology**

- Minia­tur­ized capac­i­tors (semi­con­duc­tors)
- Inter­con­nects (semi­con­duc­tors)
- Ther­mal dis­si­pa­tion (semi­con­duc­tors)
- Antire­flec­tive sur­faces (semi­con­duc­tors)
- Elec­trolyz­er elec­trodes (hydro­gen)
- Elec­trolyz­er fuel cells elec­trodes (hydro­gen)
- Ener­gy stor­age (bat­tery technology)
- Biosen­sors (med­ical technology)

## [](https://www.smoltek.com#smoltek-milestones)Smoltek Milestones

YearMile­stone

2005First **core patent filed**.

2006Selec­tive car­bon nanofiber **growth on sil­i­con**.

2007Smoltek boosts the devel­op­ment activ­i­ties at the MC2 lab­o­ra­to­ry at the Chalmers Uni­ver­si­ty of Technology.

2008Car­bon nanofiber **growth on ASIC chip** (an inte­grat­ed cir­cuit with a spe­cif­ic function).

2009**Patent plat­form in place**, sev­er­al patents filed. Car­bon nanofiber **growth on a sil­i­con car­bide device** (SiC – a pow­er mod­ule with a wide band gap that pro­vides low cou­pling loss­es and high switch­ing frequencies).

2010**First cus­tomer project**, ini­ti­at­ed from the **CERN lab­o­ra­to­ry** in Switzer­land. Devel­op­ment of car­bon nanofiber inter­con­nects in an RF device (inter­con­nect­ed struc­tures for reg­u­lat­ing radio frequencies/​oscillation rates of elec­tro­mag­net­ic waves).

2011Devel­ops con­trolled **growth of car­bon nanofibers at only 390°C**, mean­ing Smoltek has now achieved **CMOS com­pat­i­bil­i­ty** (indus­try stan­dard in semiconductors).

2012Sig­nif­i­cant increase in growth rate of car­bon nanofibers in vac­u­um cham­ber. Obtains proof of CMOS com­pat­i­bil­i­ty (indus­try stan­dard) for car­bon growth concept.

2013Inten­si­fi­ca­tion of R&D focus on capac­i­tors. Agree­ment on indus­tri­al process devel­op­ment for growth of car­bon nanofibers.

2014First pro­to­type of a **super­ca­pac­i­tor** (a chem­i­cal capac­i­tor with very high capac­i­tance that can store very high elec­tri­cal charges) based on Smoltek’s car­bon nanofibers developed.

2015First pro­to­type of an **inte­grat­ed car­bon nanofiber-based capac­i­tor** (capac­i­tor in an inte­grat­ed cir­cuit – pro­tects the cir­cuit from noise that can affect its per­for­mance and pre­vents the cir­cuit from trans­mit­ting noise that can in turn affect the per­for­mance of oth­er cir­cuits) based on Smoltek’s car­bon nanofibers developed.

2016**3D elec­trodes** based on Smoltek’s car­bon nanofibers developed.

2017The semi­con­duc­tor indus­try is show­ing great inter­est in Smoltek’s capac­i­tor tech­nol­o­gy, which can enable fur­ther minia­tur­iza­tion of chips while main­tain­ing or improv­ing per­for­mance. Smoltek Nan­otech Hold­ing AB is formed and the com­pa­ny is pre­pared for an IPO.

2018**Smotek Nan­otech Hold­ing AB is list­ed on Spot­light Stock Mar­ket** in Stock­holm, Swe­den.  
The capac­i­tance (per unit area) of our car­bon-based (CNF-MIM) capac­i­tors is dou­bled, mak­ing the tech­nol­o­gy very attrac­tive to the semi­con­duc­tor industry.

2019Con­tin­u­ous progress with CNF-MIM tech­nol­o­gy. **Capac­i­tance is increased to 650 nF/​square mil­lime­ter** and inter­nal resis­tance is kept below 40 mΩ, show­ing per­for­mance com­pa­ra­ble to oth­er solu­tions at a frac­tion of their build height.  
Smoltek Semi AB is formed, to han­dle licens­ing agree­ments with the semi­con­duc­tor industry.

2020**Smoltek Semi sings a license agree­ments for the eval­u­a­tion of the CNF-MIM tech­nol­o­gy**.  
**Smoltek Inno­va­tion (Hydro­gen) AB is formed** as a new sub­sidiary to bring Smoltek’s rev­o­lu­tion­iz­ing nan­otech­nol­o­gy to new mar­kets. The main area is the hydro­gen indus­try, where our tech­nol­o­gy can be used for ener­gy con­ver­sion and ener­gy storage.

2021**Smoltek Semi man­u­fac­tures the “world’s thinnest capac­i­tor”** – a pro­to­type of a ful­ly func­tion­al CNF-MIM capac­i­tor with a total height of 38.2 µm (includ­ing the nec­es­sary sub­strate).  
Smoltek Hydro­gen has focus on Proof-of-Con­cept test­ing of a new nanofiber-based cell mate­r­i­al for PEM electrolyzers.

2022**Smoltek Semi signs a Joint Devel­op­ment Agree­ment** with glob­al capac­i­tor giant Yageo group to com­mer­cial­ize ultra-thin decou­pling capac­i­tors for appli­ca­tion proces­sors.  
**Smoltek Hydro­gen signs a col­lab­o­ra­tion agree­ment** with an inter­na­tion­al man­u­fac­tur­er of advanced mate­ri­als for elec­trolyz­ers. This includes the joint con­struc­tion of PEM elec­trolyz­er cell pro­to­types to show that the per­for­mance sig­nif­i­cant­ly improves with our car­bon nanofibers.

2023**Smoltek Semi** devel­ops a man­u­fac­tur­ing process for **8‑inch wafers** intend­ed to pro­duce indus­tri­al­ly man­u­fac­tured CNF-MIM capac­i­tor pro­to­types in high vol­umes.  
**Smoltek Hydro­gen** shows that the car­bon nanofiber-based elec­trode for elec­trolyz­ers **pro­duces** as much **hydro­gen with only 0.5 mg of irid­i­um per square cen­time­ter** as a com­mer­cial stan­dard mate­r­i­al with 2.5 mg of irid­i­um per square centimeter.

2024**Smotek Semi** takes a major step for­ward in the devel­op­ment of CNF-MIM capac­i­tor tech­nol­o­gy by **intro­duc­ing Gen-Zero** – a new way to build high capac­i­tance capac­i­tors in a small foot­print. This allows Smoltek to cre­ate a **vol­u­met­ric capac­i­tance den­si­ty of up to 120 nano­farads per square mil­lime­ter** and per microm­e­ter of nanofiber.  
**Smoltek Hydro­gen proves**, in a 1,000-hour dura­bil­i­ty test, that the PTE (porous trans­port elec­trode) tech­nol­o­gy can **pro­duce hydro­gen with a cat­a­lyst load of only 0,2 mg Irid­i­um per square cen­time­ter**. The PTE tech­nol­o­gy is also val­i­dat­ed by Dr. Felix Büchi, a high­ly regard­ed expert on PEM electrolysis.

2025**Smoltek Semi signs a tech­ni­cal ser­vice agree­ment** with Tai­wan’s Indus­tri­al Tech­nol­o­gy Research Insti­tute (ITRI) f**or small-scale pro­duc­tion of CNF-MIM capac­i­tors**. The agree­ment enables low-vol­ume pro­duc­tion of CNF-MIM capac­i­tors, both indus­tri­al­ly man­u­fac­tured pro­to­types for cus­tomer tests and indus­tri­al­ized capac­i­tors in small­er vol­umes for spe­cial­ized cus­tomer projects.  
Dur­ing the year, the **CNF-MIM tech­nol­o­gy** has suc­cess­ful­ly passed a **1,000-hour high-tem­per­a­ture dura­bil­i­ty test**, con­firm­ing the robust­ness of the tech­nol­o­gy for advanced appli­ca­tions.  
**Smoltek Hydro­gen and Her­aeus Pre­cious Met­als** are ini­ti­at­ing a joint devel­op­ment project in hydro­gen tech­nol­o­gy to **devel­op low irid­i­um** **PTE elec­trodes** (Porous Trans­port Elec­trode) for PEM elec­trolyz­ers.  
The com­pa­ny is also ini­ti­at­ing a **strate­gic col­lab­o­ra­tion with Impact Coat­ings** with the ambi­tion to joint­ly eval­u­ate the pos­si­bil­i­ties of i**ndus­tri­al­iz­ing and scal­ing up** Smoltek’s patent­ed **car­bon nanofiber (CNF) tech­nol­o­gy** for use in, among oth­er things, PEM elec­trolyz­ers and fuel cells.

Two decades of pio­neer­ing research and IP devel­op­ment have laid the foun­da­tion for Smoltek’s next phase—commercializing advanced nan­otech­nol­o­gy solu­tions for the semi­con­duc­tor and green-ener­gy industries. 

> “Look­ing ahead, we see enor­mous poten­tial in apply­ing our nan­otech­nol­o­gy to real-world prob­lems. Every­thing we have learned—from the ear­li­est exper­i­ments to today’s indus­tri­al collaborations—has pre­pared us for this moment. We are enter­ing a phase where tech­nol­o­gy, mar­ket need, and capa­bil­i­ty align.”
> 
> Dr. Shafiq Kabir, founder and VP Vol­ume Process­es at Smoltek Hydrogen.

* * *

Read the offi­cial press release about Smoltek turn­ing 20: [Smoltek Marks 20 Years of Nan­otech­nol­o­gy Inno­va­tion and Looks Ahead to an Era of Scal­able Appli­ca­tions](https://news.cision.com/smoltek-nanotech-holding-ab/r/smoltek-marks-20-years-of-nanotechnology-innovation-and-looks-ahead-to-an-era-of-scalable-applicatio,c4280403).

Read more about Smoltek’s [tech­nol­o­gy](https://www.smoltek.com/technology/).