HORIBA launches combined particle size and shape analyzer

After nearly four decades of developing laser diffraction particle analyzers, HORIBA is repositioning Partica, the brand that has covered its LA-series instruments, around analyzing particle size and shape in a single workflow. The new Partica system combines laser diffraction with dynamic image analysis. HORIBA says the approach gives materials researchers and manufacturers both sets of results in approximately one minute.

HORIBA cites potential applications in a range of sectors, including semiconductors, battery materials, pharmaceuticals, catalysts and other advanced materials. Particles sharing the same nominal diameter can behave differently depending on their shape. In CMP slurries, oversized or agglomerated particles can scratch semiconductor wafers. In battery cathode powders, morphology influences packing density and coating uniformity. In pharmaceutical formulation, it affects dissolution and powder flow.

On the diffraction side, HORIBA specs Partica from 10 nm to 5 mm, with accuracy within ±0.6% of certified reference particle standards. A two-camera dynamic imaging configuration captures shape data from roughly 1 µm up to the millimeter scale, extracting more than 30 parameters including circularity, aspect ratio and Feret diameter. The company also rebuilt the software platform, adding remote operation, automation and data-integrity support.

Tetsuya Mori, HORIBA’s global product line manager, said in a statement that the system supports analyzing pharmaceutical particle characteristics that affect absorption efficiency and speeds evaluation of powder fluidity, “which influences production performance.”

HORIBA released the Partica system globally in March and followed two days later with the CS-900F, a fiber-optic monitor for wet-process chemicals used in semiconductor cleaning and etching. Both fall under Materials & Semiconductor, which generated JPY 156.5 billion of HORIBA’s JPY 333.1 billion in FY2025 sales and is one of three focus fields in the company’s MLMAP2028 plan, which targets JPY 450 billion in group revenue by 2028.