The US Treasury proposes tighter China investment restrictions covering AI, biotechnology and advanced chips. Here's what businesses and investors should know.
The post New US China Investment Proposal Could Reshape AI, Biotech and Chip Funding appeared first on TechRepublic.
The US Treasury proposes tighter China investment restrictions covering AI, biotechnology and advanced chips. Here's what businesses and investors should know.
The post New US China Investment Proposal Could Reshape AI, Biotech and Chip Funding appeared first on TechRepublic.
In the world of silicon semiconductors, the process of creating transistors and similar structures involves various rounds of modifications and additions in order to create the requisite functional layers. A less involved approach would simply create these structures in-situ, with research the past years having focused on transition-metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) monolayers to do exactly this. Recently [Seok Young Min] et al. reported (paywalled, Phys.org summary) on creating transistors in-situ in a tungsten ditelluride (WTe2) monolayer.
By selectively changing parts of the top layer into tungsten oxide (WOx) as an insulator and other sections into n-type WS2 and p-type WSe2 the researchers were able to create functional MOSFETs, without the normally requisite grafting on of different materials. An obvious advantage of this is that this can be done at an atomic scale, potentially achieving densities significantly higher than with industry standard silicon semiconductor technology.
WTe2 is not the only TMDC that could be viable here, of course, with other researchers investigating the use of MoSe2 for a similar purpose, as in this research by [N. Lu] et al. from 2014. This being the creation of 2D semiconductors, referring to the thin layers of these monolayer TMDCs, along with potentially other materials such as graphene.
Helion Energy, the Everett, Wash., startup racing to build the world’s first fusion plant, is expanding its semiconductor development and manufacturing efforts. The company today announced a letter of intent with the U.S. Department of Commerce for up to $175 million in funding for a three-year program to support R&D tied to semiconductor technology for commercial fusion energy.
The funds are available through the CHIPS Research and Development Office. Under the deal, which remains to be finalized, Commerce would receive a $175 million non-voting equity interest in Helion.
Helion is also putting $50 million of private investment toward the semiconductor effort.
The semiconductor initiative has two focal areas:
Helion is working to build a power plant that produces energy from fusion — smashing together small atoms in reactions akin to those that create the sun’s energy. Dozens of companies globally are chasing fusion, but none so far have shown that their technology can make more energy than is required to produce fusion in the first place.
Helion’s system uses powerful electrical pulses to form and compress plasma — an electrically charged gas — to create fusion conditions. As the plasma expands against the machine’s magnetic field, it induces an electrical current in surrounding coils. The system is designed to recover electricity directly rather than using heat to drive a steam turbine.
High-voltage semiconductors — which are designed to control electricity at high voltages without breaking down — play an essential role in the system and need to operate at optimal efficiency to capture as much energy from the system as possible.
“The CHIPS Act goal, but also specifically our component in it, builds out the high-voltage semiconductor supply chain here in the United States, both on the R&D as well as the manufacturing,” said David Kirtley, Helion’s CEO, in a GeekWire interview.
The work in Everett is expected to create more than 100 jobs. Helion’s workforce already includes a small team of semiconductor experts, and the company will be hiring for roles including materials scientists, semiconductor engineers, technicians and assemblers.
“This investment expands domestic research, secures critical supply chains, and creates high-paying American jobs,” Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said in a statement.
Congress passed the CHIPS and Science Act with leadership from Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell, and President Joe Biden signed it into law in August 2022. The law included $52.7 billion for semiconductor manufacturing, research and related activities.
Helion has raised more than $1.5 billion from investors. The $50 million for semiconductor work includes private funds already committed to the company and new cash; Kirtley did not specify how much additional funding it’s receiving, but said it includes new investors.
Helion’s expansion into semiconductor work comes as it continues fine-tuning its fusion technology at its Everett facility. At the same time, Helion is building Orion, its commercial-scale fusion plant in Malaga, Wash., near the Columbia River. It has an agreement to supply Microsoft with electricity from the facility and is targeting initial operations in 2028.
“So that’s still the plan,” Kirtley said. “We’re building Orion components and operating our other systems internally, and the work continues in parallel with all of this.”
The company has semiconductors available for use in Orion, primarily sourced from overseas vendors, he said. Kirtley expects some chips developed through the initiative to be used in Orion, potentially late in its construction.
The semiconductor effort adds another development track as Helion pursues the daunting goal of commercializing fusion energy.
“As soon as the award kicks off, we can build out the manufacturing capacity and the testing capacity, and in a parallel, do the research and development into the next generation of semiconductors as well,” Kirtley said.
Although solar panels may seem like a kind of magic, they’re really quite simple devices, in their silicon form featuring nothing but the p-type silicon wafer and an n-type layer doped with e.g. phosphorus. Because of this simplicity it’s quite possible to make your own solar cells at home using only a few basic, off-the-shelf ingredients and a kiln, which in this recent video by [Dr. Semiconductor] uses a microwave kiln and thus justifies the video’s title.
Even the silicon wafer that you start with can be easily purchased online, though you have to be careful that it’s a bare wafer, without existing etchings on it. On this you need to get a phosphorus-rich layer, which is done by creating a delicious mixture of 1 mL of tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS), 0.3 mL of 85 wt% phosphoric acid, 5 mL of ethanol and 0.25 mL of distilled water. After low heat boiling this for 30 minutes, it is spincoated onto the cut square of silicon wafer using a spinning platform, like a PC fan.
Next, you shove the coated silicon into the kiln and put it into the microwave to bake at a fairly low power level for half an hour. In the video it took less than 50% power of the microwave to not melt the silicon, so remember that those microwave kilns get pretty hot.
With the delightful smells of freshly baked silicon now teasing your nostrils, you can then take out the doped silicon to sand or etch off the thin layer of glass that’s formed around the new PV cell. On the clear spots you can now put a gallium-indium contact on the p-type Si side and a wad of indium on the newly doped Si-P side, which are now your contacts for the PV cell.
The full recipe along with many of the issues discussed in the video can also be found on the blog article, though the video conclusion notes that many improvements are still possible. The created PV cell in the video reaches an efficiency of about 5%, but this could be improved through changes like the use of a clean-room, adding an anti-reflection coating and improving the contact with the cell.
Seattle-based TriMagnetix has landed new funding and commitments totaling $1 million to continue developing a semiconductor chip that, according to initial lab testing, consumes 800 times less energy than a traditional chip to process the same amount of data.
The startup uses nanomagnetic technology that requires only electrical pulses rather than the constant power stream traditional chips need, dramatically reducing electricity consumption and heat generation. The design also makes the chip resistant to radiation, and it’s built to integrate with existing computing infrastructure.
The startup has made additional progress beyond the new funding:
Earthbound data centers struggling to curb energy use and heat output are seeking more sustainable chips, but the startup is particularly interested in satellite applications.
The Pacific Northwest, home to companies including Starcloud and SpaceX, is the “satellite capital of the world,” said Lucas Hahn, co-founder, president and chief strategic officer of TriMagnetix.
Satellite companies have told him they want semiconductors that are energy efficient and resistant to the radiation experienced in space, Hahn said. That makes TriMagnetix’s devices “a no-brainer.”
In addition to Hahn, the startup’s other employee is Madison Hanberry, who launched the TriMagnetix in 2023. Hanberry, who has served as chief of research and development, is transitioning to CEO. His sister, Aspen White, is also a co-founder.
The chips made so far by TriMagnetix are not the high-performance graphics processing units, or GPUs, used for applications such as AI and 3D animation. Nor are they simpler central processing units, or CPUs.
“It’s replacing specific compute in certain devices at a very low level,” Hahn said. “So not quite CPU yet, but it is at the core level doing similar things.”
TriMagnetix has contracted with the Washington Nanofabrication Facility at the University of Washington to use the site’s fabrication equipment. It aims to have a product available for commercial sales within the next year.
The round was led by Acequia Capital with participation from Athenaeum Ventures. Actuate Ventures has also committed to the round. The combined total from the three firms is $1 million. Last year, the startup received a $200,000 investment from climate venture fund SNØCAP.
Seattle startup Chiplytics today announced $4.5 million in funding to support the deployment of its microelectronics verification technology and the opening of an inspection facility in Bellport, N.Y.
The company provides authentication and quality screening of semiconductor chips and other critical electronic components. It focuses on detecting counterfeits, substitutions, inconsistencies and suspect parts before they’re assembled into machinery.
Chiplytics launched in 2022 during the COVID-driven chip shortage when manufacturers struggled to find parts and also ran into quality issues. The AI boom has created new bottlenecks in electronics.
“We’re seeing a lot of lead times now over 52 weeks for basic components,” said Stephen DiBartolomeo, president and co-founder of Chiplytics.
That leaves manufacturers with two options: wait for components from an authorized distributor or turn to independent brokers and distributors that may have the parts but are not authorized by the original manufacturer to sell them.
Chiplytics has developed technology that incorporates AI, automation and robotics to screen every electronics item for quality — rather than randomly selecting a few for testing.
“We just did an order for 50,000 parts. If you were to try and do that by hand or by sampling, it would take way too long,” DiBartolomeo said.
The company got its start through a U.S. Department of Energy program that connects entrepreneurs with technology developed in national labs to facilitate commercialization. The team worked alongside experts from Sandia National Laboratories to develop its verification platform and validated the solution with the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force before deploying it commercially.
The startup’s newly opened inspection lab sits within a 600,000-square-foot center operated by Quality King, a major U.S. distribution company. Chiplytics supports the company’s QK Special Services, which focuses on electronics.
DiBartolomeo and Chiplytics CEO and co-founder Steven Dourmashkin knew each other from high school on Long Island, N.Y. DiBartolomeo attended the U.S. Naval Academy and worked as a cryptologic warfare officer with the National Security Agency. Dourmashkin earned degrees in mechanical engineering and launched and sold a music tech company.
The two reconnected to start a business in hardware and national security. They brought on Chief Technology Officer Connor Dempsey, an expert in semiconductor physics whom Dourmashkin knew from Cornell University.
The startup has six full-time employees plus contractors. Its R&D operations are in Seattle.
The $4.5 million in funding includes $2.5 million in seed financing and a $2 million Air Force Tactical Funding Increase award. The round was led by Scout Ventures and Waypoint Ventures. Additional investors include QKSS, Industrious Ventures, Interwoven Ventures, Seattle Alliance of Angels, and Cornell University’s Red Bear Angels.
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