Coolest Things Made in Missouri 2026: Antireflective coating for semiconductors

Tracy Jenkins

Owners: Brewer family and employee-owners
Employees: 442 in state, 550 companywide
Founded: 1981
Web: BrewerScience.com
Social: Facebook.com/
BrewerScience
2025 Revenue: Undisclosed
Product Pricing: Undisclosed
Why is this the coolest product made in Missouri? It’s a game-changer enabling faster, more energy-efficient devices with greater accuracy and reliability at much smaller scales.

Founded 45 years ago by Terry Brewer, manufacturer Brewer Science Inc. began with what officials call a groundbreaking invention: the world’s first antireflective coating for semiconductors. Since then, the company, which is headquartered in Rolla, has expanded its technology portfolio within advanced lithography, advanced packaging and printed electronics to enable microdevices and monitoring systems for air, environmental and industrial applications. Its materials are behind everyday devices people rely on, including cars, laptops, medical equipment and smartphones.

SBJ: What goes into the manufacturing of antireflective coating for semiconductors?
Tracy Jenkins, corporate relations representative: Terry Brewer invented it, and today that technology is still a vital element in the chip-making. So nearly 45 years later, it’s still an essential solution for those products. And without it, modern devices wouldn’t even be possible without that antireflective coating. What our product does, it enables their product to be successful. The wafers are made out of a crystal, and it’s polished, so it becomes really, highly reflective. So, you get glare and reflection. And when they make the semiconductor, when they make the integrated circuits, they have to print with light. That’s how the products get smaller and faster and more powerful is because the integrated circuits are smaller and smaller. In that process, it minimizes the reflection from all the underlying layers, and it keeps the product from becoming distorted. By reducing that interference of the light, the coating support makes those complex circuit designs reliable. We manufacture chemicals in an environment that is cleaner than operating rooms used for open-heart surgery. Our material trace metal contamination is less than one part per billion, so that is equivalent to one drop in 10,000 gallons.

SBJ: How does the company’s manufacturing of this product impact the state economy?
Jenkins: All of our product is made in Missouri. Our facilities are in Vichy, Missouri, and Rolla, Missouri. And then we have (a research and development) facility in Springfield, Missouri. So, we have several employees throughout the state of Missouri working on the product.

SBJ: Why is it important for you all to manufacture in Missouri as opposed to a high-tech hub such as Silicon Valley in California?
Jenkins: One of the amazing things about Terry Brewer and Brewer Science is it’s not ever going to be a cookie cutter, or this is what everybody’s doing. It’s going to be unique. So, we are here in the middle of Missouri. We are centrally located. It is a wonderful community. It’s a small town, it’s rural. It brings that technology to the world and helps grow our community. So, to him, it’s being a part of the community as well, making a difference in our community. We are proud to be here and stay here.