History

Ernest Spirig established this company named DIPL. ING. ERNEST SPIRIG as a closely held private company on March 14th 1969 in Rapperswil, Canton St. Gall, Switzerland. In its very early times the company was engaged in consulting and development services for the emerging Semiconductor Industry, specializing in gold wire bonding technologies. There was a need for the development of stable hydrogen sources for the flame-off process for the gold wire ball bonding. Besides developing high precision mechanical regulator technology for bottled high pressure Hydrogen gas, this was also the origin of studying the water electrolysis process to create a clean just-in-time hydrogen source with a stable caloric output. This basic work laid the foundation for the years later following engagement in the manufacture of patented, multi-cell Hydrogen / Oxygen generators used as stable heat sources for precision soft- and silver soldering, for precision brazing and welding, for precision annealing and hardening, for activation of adhesive layers and activation of surfaces to increase adherence of printing inks and adhesive coatings. From its beginning Switzerland was for the specialization a too small market and Spirig had to cater to the markets worldwide. The action in Semiconductor manufacturing technologies was at that time the USA. Over the years, as Semicon started to span the world, Spirig followed those markets.

Mr. Spirig holds a MSEE degree (Dipl. Ing. ETH) in electronic and electric engineering from the Swiss Institute of Technology in Zurich. He is also author of one of the first German written books on "Microelectronics", still used today as an assistant textbook/introduction into basic semiconductor technology.

The company is today (2012) still fully and privately owned. Turn-over or employment figures are not released to the public. Spirig fully owns various companies catering to manufacturing and distributing activities in various countries.

Mr. Spirig has invented and owns today (2012) more than 100 patents in various countries worldwide on varied technologies, which can be divided into:

• Electrolysis-apparatus and -system.
• Clean-room particle shielding technologies (semiconductor, pharmaceutical, atomic plants).
• Electronic signal processing for alarm systems.
• Temperature recording-methods and -materials.
• De-soldering, -tools, -methods and -material for the electronic/electric industries.
• Mechanical gear systems.

Various technologies and patents are used in production, others are licensed out. Some products based on these technologies do have a seizable world-market share. The product and technology mix is constantly increased by actively investing into start-up operations (seed capital) and/or buying/selling know-how. SPIRIG is open to inquiries for new start-ups or new technologies.