Explains David Summerland, CEO and founder of Nottingham-based Search For The Next (SFN) which is developing the Bizen technology: “We are working closely with Semefab to get products to market as quickly as possible – ideally by the end of the year. 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.”

This aggressive 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.

Concludes Summerland: “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. We expect to present comprehensive test data on initial silicon at the end of the summer together with details of our first product plans.”