SCIENTIFIC VISUAL SA

Their core work

Scientific Visual develops automated optical inspection systems for semiconductor crystal materials, specifically silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN). Their core technology detects defects in raw crystals, wafers, and ingots before they enter the manufacturing pipeline — reducing waste and improving production yield. Based in Lausanne, Switzerland, they operate at the intersection of optics, tomography, and crystallography, building quality control tools for the semiconductor materials supply chain.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their early work (2018–2020) focused on building automated optical inspection tools for silicon carbide wafers and ingots, with an emphasis on production yield and cost-effective quality control. By 2021, they expanded into gallium nitride inspection and adopted more advanced visualization techniques like tomography for detecting internal crystal defects. The trajectory shows a company deepening its core SiC technology while branching into adjacent semiconductor materials where demand is growing fast.

They are expanding from single-material (SiC) inspection toward a multi-material platform covering GaN and potentially other compound semiconductors, using increasingly sophisticated imaging techniques.

How they like to work

Scientific Visual operates almost exclusively as a project coordinator — all four of their H2020 projects were self-led. They have zero recorded consortium partners, meaning they used SME Instrument and MSCA individual fellowship funding mechanisms that don't require large consortia. This is characteristic of a focused technology SME that drives its own R&D agenda rather than plugging into larger collaborative networks.

No consortium partners recorded in H2020 data — all projects were single-beneficiary (SME Instrument Phase 1/2 and MSCA Individual Fellowships). Their collaboration network, if any, exists outside the formal H2020 consortium structure.

What sets them apart

Scientific Visual occupies a rare niche: automated defect inspection for raw semiconductor crystals before they become wafers or chips. Most quality control in semiconductors happens downstream; they catch problems at the crystal growth stage where corrections are cheapest. For anyone working in compound semiconductor manufacturing or crystal growth, they bring a ready-made inspection platform with proven EU funding traction.

Highlights from their portfolio

• GaNSpector
  Marks their strategic expansion from SiC into gallium nitride, a semiconductor material critical for power electronics and 5G applications.
• SiC_Scope
  Their largest project (EUR 2.45M, SME Instrument Phase 2) — represents the core commercialization push for their SiC crystal scanner technology.