Chalmers spinout seeks €2 million for carbon nanofibre semiconductor process

20 Mar 2007 | News | Update from University of Warwick
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SmoltekAB, a spinout from Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenberg, Sweden, is seeking €1.5 million to €2 million to bring into production a new carbon nanofibre technology for chip manufacturers.

Vice President David Brud, presenting 8 March at the “Meet the Spinouts” conference organized by Library House and sponsored by Science|Business, said the company has developed a new technology to allow chip makers to shrink further the size of computer chips.

A fundamental problem in further chip miniaturization is that, the smaller the components, the greater the heat and production costs. Several chip makers have explored integrating sub-microscopic carbon nanotubes into their production processes, as a way around that problem – but the Smoltek process uses more-flexible nanofibres which the company claims to have made compatible with the industry’s existing, standard CMOS manufacturing techniques.

The technology, on which three international patents applications have been filed, could be licensed to manufacturers or incorporated into machine tools for the chip industry, Brud said. The company, founded in January 2006 and now with five employees, is seeking up to €2 million to start prototype production, and to recruit more people to round out its senior management team.

Since founding, the company has already raised SEK 2.4 million from Chalmers Innovation, Innovationsbron Vast, and business angels.

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