The commercialisation of Bizen, the transistor being productised by Search For The Next (SFN) of Nottingham, is set to benefit from investment in new process equipment which will expedite its development.

One wafer run is being produced every month by manufacturing ally, Semefab, and initial analysis is very positive for both power and digital circuits.

“We are working closely with Semefab to get products to market as quickly as possible – ideally by the end of the year,” says SFN CEO David Summerland, “no special fab equipment is required, but we are making strategic investments in capital equipment to ensure that the prototyping and proving processes are completed without delay.”

The timescale is only possible because one of the key attributes of Bizen is that it reduces leadtimes from 15 weeks – which is typical for CMOS – to just 12 days.

Bizen also halves the number of process layers required while equalling or bettering the speed and low power capabilities offered by current CMOS devices.

“Based on our initial results which have exceeded our expectations, we are already looking to contract with early adopters; on completion of signing, we will release the PDK to them,” adds Summerland, “we expect to present comprehensive test data on initial silicon at the end of the summer together with details of our first product plans.”