ON Semiconductor and Nantero to Develop Carbon Nanotube Technology
ON Semiconductor (Nasdaq: ONNN) and Nantero Inc. announced they have teamed up to develop innovative semiconductor process technology, continuing ongoing work to effectively integrate carbon nanotubes in CMOS fabrication. The joint development project is taking place at ON Semiconductor's Gresham, Ore., manufacturing campus. The facility — recently purchased from LSI Logic Corp. — has production capabilities down to the 130 nanometers (nm) node, making it well-suited for Nantero's development work. When ON Semiconductor took over the campus earlier this month, it hired substantially all of the facility's employees, including most of the in-house engineering team.
"We see tremendous potential in this joint project," said Greg Schmergel, Nantero's co-founder and CEO. "Nantero has successfully worked with the engineering team in Gresham for years and we look forward to working with ON Semiconductor to make the world's first production semiconductor devices using carbon nanotubes."
Nantero's proprietary processes for the use of carbon nanotubes are CMOS-compatible and are presently under development at ON Semiconductor's Gresham semiconductor manufacturing campus. The facility was the first production fab in the world to qualify carbon nanotubes.
"ON Semiconductor is excited to be working with Nantero," said Bill George, senior vice president of operations for ON Semiconductor. "The technological accomplishments already achieved by Nantero in the Gresham facility are impressive and we expect to work together to realize additional milestones in the integration of carbon nanotubes in CMOS processes."
