SCOTTSDALE, AZ — The Arizona semiconductor industry has stepped into the limelight this year thanks to the pandemic-induced chip shortage and the massive Valley investments in the works from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Intel Corp.
The region is home to sizable chipmaking operations, but it’s also a place where chip innovation happens. Most recently with Ambature Inc., a Scottsdale chip design company that announced new test results for its superconductive building process last week.
Specifically the company is using a composite of yttrium barium copper oxide (YBCO) to build its architecture along the a-axis. Put plainly, Ambature uses a material that’s more conductive than silicon and builds vertically instead of horizontally.
This redesign takes place on the microscopic face of a computer chip. Ron Kelly, CEO of Ambature, told the Business Journal that this new process will potentially help put better chips in all kinds of end products.
“We are the first company to actually prove that you can build a vertical structure architecture superconductor,” he said. “That is one of the biggest innovations that has happened in Josephson Junctions in some time.”
