UK startup gets funding to push CNTs into chipmaking

August 24, 2009: Carbon nanotube developer Surrey NanoSystems says it has secured a second round of funding totaling £2.5M (US $4.2M) to help commercialize its low-temperature growth process for carbon nanotubes, targeted for use as a replacement for copper interconnects in semiconductor devices.

Investors participating in this round include Octopus Ventures (£1.75M/$3.0M), with the rest coming from Surrey’s initial venture capital investor IP Group and the U. of Surrey, as well as other investors. The company was spun out of U. Surrey’s Advanced Technology Institute in 2006.

Typical CNT growth requires ~700°C deposition temperatures, but the company says it has developed a fabrication system and process enabling ~350°C temperatures, usable in silicon-based semiconductor manufacturing processes. “If you can solve the problem of growing precision carbon nanotubes at silicon-friendly temperatures — and we have — it opens up a massive potential market,” says Ben Jensen, CTO of Surrey NanoSystems, in a statement. “We expect to be the company that is able to offer a viable new interconnection process for high-volume semiconductor fabrication.”

After an initial focus of providing equipment to developers researching and prototyping CNTs, the firm will use the new funding to scale its hardware and optimize the materials process technology from its current 100mm wafer-size capabilities to a mass-production friendly 300mm wafer-size. A SEMI interface also will be added to the equipment for integration into wafer-processing cluster tools. The firm says it also is “pursuing technology partnerships” with both chipmakers and cluster tool suppliers.

The new funding will be used to scale the company’s materials growth technology from its current 100 mm wafer size capability, to the 300 mm sizes used in commercial wafer fabrication plants. Surrey NanoSystems will also add an industry-standard SEMI interface to its process equipment, allowing it to be integrated easily onto standard wafer-processing cluster tools. Alongside this development work, Surrey NanoSystems is pursuing technology partnerships with both semiconductor manufacturers and volume cluster tool suppliers, to shorten the path to market for its technology.

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