Integrated Report 2020

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Strategy36LINTEC Integrated Report 2020As a technology-centered company, we realize that strengthening R&D capabilities is one of our most important management strategies for achieving sustainable growth. Two approaches help us to create both products that resolve our customers’ diverse technological issues and products that are unprecedented, innovative, and lead the market: the developing of functional materials and related processing technologies that leverage our proprietary technological capabilities and a market-dialogue style of research that emphasizes customer needs. Going forward, we will further strengthen our R&D system to accelerate the speed of product development and create new technologies.Research and DevelopmentEach research labResearch CenterCore functions in materials developmentAdministration Dept.R&D Strategy Dept.Analyzing technical trends and determining direction from a long-term viewpointProduct Research Dept.Development of products directly linked to current businessResearch & Development Div.Each research labIntellectual Property Dept.Strategic intellectual property activitiesNew Materials Research Dept.R&D with insight into the futureLINTEC OF AMERICA, INC.Nano-Science & Technology CenterOverall supervision by management-related sectionsR&D into carbon nanotubes, artificial muscles, etc. R&D SystemThe Research Center of the Research & Development Div. in Saitama Prefecture is the core base for the Group’s R&D activities. The center has state-of-the-art testing and analysis equipment, test coating facilities, and a clean room, as well as the same semiconductor-related equipment that is actu-ally used by customers. The completion of the Advanced Technology Building in 2015, with its large-scale pilot coaters that closely resemble plant mass production facilities, pro-vided a system for smooth flow from R&D to mass production. The center mainly comprises the Product Research Dept., which develops products directly connected to our current business, and the New Materials Research Dept., which conducts R&D with a focus on the future. About 200 research staff are engaged in day-to-day research on these themes. In addition, the Nano-Science & Technology Center in Texas, the U.S., is engaged in research in new fields outside our current technology domain, such as carbon nanotubes and artificial muscles.