IST AG celebrates 20 years in the Czech Republic

The Swiss company Innovative Sensor Technology IST AG turned a sharp corner on November 4th 2014. The Czech production subsidiary located in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm celebrated its 20th anniversary and opened the doors to welcome friends and family to celebrate with them.

Experience in the semiconductor industry and people with a strong educational background was the criteria 20 years ago when IST AG, at that time located in Wattwil, Switzerland was on the lookout for a place to start up a new production facility. At that time, IST AG Switzerland employed only a few, but among those, three people from the Czech Republic who came to Switzerland in 1991. They started up the development of nickel sensors based on the, nowadays, well-known IST AG thin film technology.

The decision of the new location came naturally as Pavel Knytl, one of the developers from IST AG Switzerland, decided to return to the Czech Republic and start up a production facility in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm. The experience and knowledge gathered during the first three years of development at IST AG Switzerland, the relevant and technical education in the Czech Republic and a long history in the semiconductor industry made Rožnov pod Radhoštěm the ideal location.

During the first years thousands of sensors were measured, whilst at the same time technologies from the Swiss T2 production were transferred to the Czech Republic and duplicated, and the facility started to take its form. Additionally, new assembly technologies were developed together with technologies such as flow sensors for washing machines and temperature sensors for heating and ventilation. Over the years more and more production technologies were introduced and inserted together with special assembly technologies such as extension of wires through brazing, soldering of sensors onto various materials such as copper, brass, stainless steel, lamination and ceramic encapsulation of sensors. “We have very good technologies in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm and very stable products. We are an important part of the overall temperature production at IST AG and the daily communication with the Swiss office is very good“, says Vasek Folvarcny, managing director at Innovative Sensor Technology, s.r.o.  

Based on organic growth and development, IST AG Czech Republic, at that time employing more than 40 people, moved in 2008 from their 440 m2 production facility to a new and larger facility (1600 m2) also located in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm, increasing both production output and number of employees. Furthermore, since 2008 the entire production of pastes used to produce and protect the sensors has been made in the Czech Republic. This includes 5 different types of pastes specially developed for IST AG. Since 2011, new pastes for the latest product addition of chemical sensors, pH sensors and gas sensors (CO2) have been developed in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm. 

The 20th anniversary was celebrated on November 7th 2014 with the city council of Rožnov pod Radhoštěm, the more than 80 employees, their families and guests from IST AG Switzerland.