Atomera aims to boost power chip production with new tech
30/11/2021 14:00
By Stephen Nellis
Nov 30 (Reuters) - Atomera Inc ATOM.O on Tuesday said it
has come up with a new technology that could boost the
production output of power-management semiconductors, a category
of chip found in nearly every electronic device that has been in
short supply globally.
Los Gatos, California-based Atomera develops methods for
manufacturing chips and licenses its technology to chip
designers and manufacturers. Its approach involves inserting a
layer of oxygen atoms into a semiconductor material to help make
chips smaller and more power efficient.
The technology announced Tuesday is designed for 5-volt
power management chips. Those chips sit between a power source
such as a battery or electrical outlet and translate the kind of
power supplied by the source into the kind of power needed by a
device's computing chips.
Atomera said its new technology can shrink the size of the
transistors in power management chips so that semiconductor
manufacturers can get 20% more chips out of their existing
techniques and tools.
Scott Bibaud, Atomera's chief executive, told Reuters in an
interview that it would take about two years for chipmakers that
decide to tap the technology to redesign their chips to
implement it.
"On the scale of semiconductors, that's very fast," Bibaud
said "Power management chips are actually the quickest chips to
design."
(Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by
Leslie Adler)
((Stephen.Nellis@thomsonreuters.com; (415) 344-4934;))