Under the Santa Cruz Radar: Quantar Technology Inc.

By Michael Mellon
President/GM Quantar Technology Inc.
Special to Santa Cruz Tech Beat

December 1, 2020 — Santa Cruz, CA

(Photo above: Ultra-High-Vacuum compatible sensor head for imaging of electrons, ions, and soft x-rays. Contributed)

Quantar Technology is a small, profitable provider of specialized electronic instrumentation for the scientific research market, based in Santa Cruz. Our products are aimed primarily toward the physics, chemistry and material science research communities.

Started in 1989 as a spinoff from a prior employer of the founder, Quantar has developed a substantial product and customer base over 30+ years of operation which illustrates a successful alternative approach to a start-up from ground-zero. Customers include universities, national laboratories and industrial organizations worldwide.  We remain a privately-held business. 

Products include a line of unique, ultra-sensitive, single-event-counting imaging (X-Y) detector systems for applications in spectroscopy and imaging of atomic charged particles such as electrons and ions, soft x-ray and UV to NIR (light) photons. These products offer superb signal-to-noise ratio performance, particularly in signal-starved, ultra-low signal strength environments. They also offer single-event time-tagging resolution for time-resolved spectroscopy and imaging (X-Y-T), which is increasingly important in the study of dynamic processes. PC-based data acquisition and display software is also available.

In addition, in North America, Quantar offers the innovative products from a Germany-based scientific instrument company. These products are sold to a very similar customer base as the detector line creating considerable synergy. Products include pulse signal amplitude analyzers and high-resolution, high-count rate time digitizers used in applications such as TOF (time of flight) mass spectroscopy, including both hardware and software.

Quantar has received numerous industry awards for innovative new products and applications, including three R&D World Magazine R&D100 Awards for applications ranging from an optical non-contact IC/microprocessor inspection tool (with IBM) to a time-resolved Imaging Fluorescence Analyzer (with Brookhaven National Lab) to the IPEM Ion-Electron Microscope (with Sandia National Labs).

The company is involved in product development, manufacturing, sales and after-sale support. It is highly regarded among its customer base for quality products and excellent pre-sale and after-sale support.

The company currently occupies a 1600 square foot facility in westside Santa Cruz, CA.

Finally, we are currently evaluating a change in ownership as the original founder retires. This is a small, turn-key, ongoing operation. It may be suitable as a profitable addition to an existing business or as a part-time or full-time business for an enterprising individual. Contact us if you have interest. (Contact Michael Mellon, mmellon@quantar.com)

Quantar Technology Inc. www.quantar.com

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