£2.5million funding for Surrey NanoSystems

Among the investors are Octopus Ventures, IP Group, the University of Surrey, with the funds being targeted for use as interconnection technology in semiconductor devices. According to Surrey NanoSytems, the innovation will help silicon integrated circuit manufacturers to overcome a critical problem that threatens the evolution to next generation geometry sizes, speeds and power conservation. The traditional use of copper to provide the vertical interconnections required for integrated circuit (ic) fabrication, is running into technical difficulties as the geometry sizes of ics shrink. Carbon nanotubes can be structured to act as highly efficient conductors, but their adoption as a replacement for copper has been hindered by the fact that conventionally grown carbon nanotubes require temperatures of around 700°C, too high for semiconductor processing. However, Surrey NanoSystem's fabrication system and process allows the structures to be grown at temperatures of 350°C or less. The new funding will allow the company to extend its engineering and development capabilities with a new technology laboratory and extra staff. Ben Jensen, cto of Surrey NanoSystems, said: "The semiconductor industry urgently needs a new interconnection technology. 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. We expect to be the company that is able to offer a viable new interconnection process for high volume semiconductor fabrication, one that really exploits the incredible performance properties of carbon nanotubes."