LUCAS HEIGHTS, New South Wales, Australia — Silex Systems Ltd., a company that specializes in researching isotopically-pure silicon and uranium-enriched silicon, has signed an R&D collaboration agreement with Sumitomo Mitsubishi Silicon Corp. (SUMCO), one the worlds leading makers of silicon wafers. The two companies have agreed to investigate the commercial potential of using enriched silicon-28 in semiconductor wafer applications.
An isotopically pure form of silicon has a thermal conductivity about 60% higher than naturally occurring mono-crystalline silicon. The material, with the rare isotopes silicon-29 and silicon-30 excluded, is expected to contribute to the creation of higher-density silicon integrated circuits.
The Silex collaboration agreement with SUMCO involves a two-year feasibility study during which time enriched silicon-28 epitaxial wafers would be made in one of SUMCO's Japanese plants using material sourced by Silex, and as Silex improves its own separation process.
As the Silex silicon-28 separation process — separation of isotopes by laser excitation — cannot yet produce sufficient quantities of enriched silicon for the study, the project will be accelerated by initially sourcing relatively expensive material from Russian centrifuge technology through U.S. based Isonics Corp., Silex said.
Once the enriched silicon-28 epitaxial wafers have been manufactured, device manufacturers would be asked to conduct tests in order to quantify the technical benefits, the company said.
If the feasibility study is successful, Silex and SUMCO would enter into discussions on the potential commercial development of the technology. There are no plans to exchange intellectual property during the feasibility study, and the costs of the project are to be shared between the two companies, Silex said.
“The collaboration reinforces Silex's commercial strategy of forming partnerships with key industry players in each sector of our business,” said Michael Goldsworthy, chief executive officer of Silex Systems, in a statement.
“SUMCO's customers, the major semiconductor device manufacturers, are working harder to develop techniques for better thermal management. We hope that enriched silicon-28 can make a difference for this important issue, so we are very keen to study the feasibility of this technology with Silex Systems, who appear to be the world leaders in laser isotope separation technology,” said Tatsuhiko Shigematsu, a director of Sumco.
SUMCO was formed earlier in 2002 when the Sitix Division of Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd. and Mitsubishi Materials Silicon Corp. merged their silicon wafer businesses. SUMCO has a share of approximately 23% of the global silicon wafer market, worth $5.4 billion in 2001, Silex said. Shin-Etsu Handotai at about 27.9% has a larger share. Wacker Siltronic with 16.4% fills third place, the company added.
