News & Press Releases

Recent news and press releases on Sinmat:

Audio snippet on NOVA (at pbs TV) about Diamond as a substrate for future Silicon electronics: A short commentary on Diamond as a substrate material for future electronic devices. Sinmat is currently working on diamond substrates, to achieve the goals stated in this commentary. more>
Press release (accompanied with pictures) on Sinmat winning the 2009 Governor's Innovation Award: Florida Governor Charlie Crist awards Sinmat President and Vice-President, the 2009 Governor's Innovation Award at the Governor's Club in Tallahassee, FL. more>
Gainesville Sun features Sinmat on it winning the 2009 Governor's Business Diversification Award: Local newspaper features Sinmat for the company winning the 2009 Governor's Innovation Award. more>
GTEC press release on Sinmat winning the 2009 Governor's Innovation Award: Florida Governor Charlie Crist will award Sinmat the 2009 Governor's Innovation Award. more>
Sinmat featured in the Orlando Sentinel on winning the Florida High Tech Council grant for 2009: Sinmat Inc. won a $100,000 grant from the Florida High Tech Corridor Council (FHTCC) for performing research. more>
Florida High Tech Council features Sinmat in its Industry Spotlight section: Florida High Tech Corridor Council's (FHTCC) Newsletter talks about Sinmat working on cutting-edge semiconductor technologies. more>
ABC news channel WCJB TV 20 features an interview with Sinmat Co-Founder Dr. Rajiv Singh: TV 20's Technology Spotlight in Aug, 2009 features a video interview with Dr. Singh, illuminating viewers on Sinmat's various techbologies. more>
Sinmat awarded the 2009 R&D 100 award for its Digital CMP technology: Sinmat Inc. won the 2009 R&D 100 award for its Ultra-High Precision Digital polishing technology for copper interconnects manufacturing, in the process sciences section. more>
Explore Magazine at the Office of Research (UF) features Sinmat: The Explore Magazine at the University of Florida features Sinmat and its wafer polishing technology in its "Smooth Sailing" article in the Summer, 2009 issue. more>
Sinmat featured in the WHITE HOUSE BLOG: Sinmat President Deepika Singh on-stage (in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House), and in discussions relating to energy efficiency, smarter technology, and more integrated systems. more>
CBS news blog on President Obama's speech "We Need Some Inventiveness": In the latter part of his speech, the President mentions Sinmat as a company from Gainesville, FL, developing new ways to manufacture microchips that can help power smarter energy systems, from more fuel-efficient hybrid cars to more responsive, efficient lighting for homes and businesses. more>
CNN Newsroom Transcripts: Obama speaks to Energy Entrepreneur including Sinmat President Deepika Singh. more>
The Gainesville Sun article on Sinmat: National exposure for local company. more>
The Independent Florida Alligator article on Sinmat: Local entrepreneur honored by Obama at White House. more>
UF College of Engineering features Sinmat in its newsroom articles: President Obama mentions UF start-up company in Speech. more>
GTEC Tech industry news: President Obama features Gainesville's Sinmat. more>
Solid State Technology Features Sinmat ATP Technology: In a review of the MRS Spring 2009 meeting presentations, Sinmat's Digital CMP (DCMP) technology developed through the ATP, NIST project is featured. more>
Florida High Tech Corridor Council (FHTCC) features Sinmat winning the NIST award: The FHTCC features Sinmat in it's Catalyst Factor publication, on Sinmat Inc. winning the prestigious $ 2 Million ATP award from NIST. more>
Digital Planarization Process: Sinmat Inc. is awarded nearly 2 Million Dollars in ATP funding by NIST to develop a novel planarization process for 300/450 mm Wafer Semiconductor Manufacturing. more>
Slurries for Microprocessors: The University of Florida (UF), Office of Technology Licensing (OTL) features Sinmat as one of the upcoming technology companies. more>
UF Spin-Off Receives Prestigious National Award: The University of Florida (UF), Office of Technology Licensing (OTL) features Sinmat's success and recognition (R&D 100 awards) in its Spring 2005 OTLTECHnotes. more>
The US Department of energy Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) division feature Sinmat as one of the recipients of R&D 100 award for the year 2005. more>
The University of Florida Technology Transfer division features Sinmat. more>
GTEC update: Sinmat wins second R&D 100 award. more>

Other press releases:

Sinmat Inc. received a 2008 R&D 100 Award for their slurry for polishing wide band gap semiconductors. The technology titled “Semiconductor Polishing: WBG Slurry”, encompasses slurries (a mixture of nanoparticles and chemical additives) used during the polishing process of next-generation microchips (gallium nitride and silicon carbide materials), which are key components in clean technology applications such as hybrid cars and energy savings home/office lighting systems based on high brightness Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs). LEDs are used in traffic signals, full-motion video signs, digital camera flash, cellular phone backlighting and automotive dashboard lighting. Additionally, LEDs would virtually eliminate the need for routine bulb replacement, as they reduce power consumption and are 80 percent more efficient than incandescent bulbs. Wide Band Gap materials are also used in military applications as well as consumer electronics such as next-generation DVD players using Blu-ray discs. Sinmat’s slurries help in lowering the defects and cost of manufacturing such materials considerably because of their polishing technology superiority.

The R&D 100 award is given to one of the 100 technologically most significant product of the year. Dubbed the Oscars of Invention, for 45 years the prestigious R&D 100 Awards have been helping companies provide the important initial push a new product needs to compete successfully in the marketplace. The winning of an R&D 100 Award is a mark of excellence known to industry, government and academia as proof that the product is one of the most innovative ideas of the year. This is the third R&D 100 Award Sinmat, Inc. has received. Sinmat received R&D 100 award for their Genteel Slurry in 2004 and their soft, elastic Nanosponge Materials in 2005.

Sinmat would like to thank the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Defense (DOD) for support of this work.

Press Release on the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) award from NIST

For Immediate Release: September 28, 2007
Sinmat Inc. is located at GTEC Center, Gainesville, FL

Novel Digital Planarization Process for 300/450 mm Wafer Semiconductor Manufacturing

The semiconductor industry is continually driven to improve performance (faster chip speeds) and lower manufacturing costs. This statement is best supported by Moore's Law which states that computing power at fixed cost should double every 18 to 24 months. Semiconductor chip manufacturers (SCMs), such as Intel, IBM, etc. have continually invested in R&D and fulfilled Moore's Law for the past 30 years. Currently, one of the biggest challenges facing the semiconductor industry is the scale-up of manufacturing techniques from the current 300 mm wafer size to 450 mm. Such a transition combined with continued miniaturization of devices poses significant hurdles. Of all semiconductor processes (e.g. film deposition, thermal treatment, etching, etc.), the planarization technology for interconnect manufacturing is perhaps the most ill-equipped to make this quantum leap to larger wafers. This is due to the extremely large number of processing variables that affect the uniformity and defectivity in the polishing process. Even the use of sophisticated sensing and control technologies may not be able to overcome inherent fundamental deficiencies associated with planarization technologies.

Sinmat has proposed developing a novel improvement on a key process technology for the semiconductor industry; a new planarization technique for wafer polishing that offers better control of the process and the ability to scale the process to larger wafer sizes without impairing performance. Sinmat Inc. proposes the development of a novel digital chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) method to overcome the above-mentioned challenges. This planarization technology is weakly dependent on standard variables, thus making it a readily scalable process. The company plans to work together with its partners, including the University of Florida, to rapidly develop and commercialize this high-risk/ high-impact disruptive technology. The company expects to achieve nearly an order of magnitude enhancement in the uniformity of polishing, thus making the planarization process much more scalable to the next generation requirements of the semiconductor industry. If successful, Sinmat's technology could significantly improve semiconductor chip yields by reducing non-uniformity and defect rates, especially on large wafers. The company estimates that the technology could reduce CMP-related manufacturing costs by as much as 80 percent. Consequently, this would enable the $250 Billion semiconductor industry resulting in increased availability and affordability of cheaper computers. This revolutionary technology would serve US companies and increase exports (to Europe and Asia), thereby ensuring US leadership in semiconductor manufacturing and nanotechnology. Furthermore, it would facilitate employment of future PhDs and engineers. Thus, there would be higher productivity, increase in hi-tech/ high-wage R&D jobs, and many other social and economic benefits for the local community.

Nanosponges Speed Semiconductor Devices
The semiconductor device industry is continually driven to improve performance. In order to achieve increasing speeds and decreasing costs, manufacturers have introduced new materials such as ultra-low k dielectrics. These dielectrics, however, are soft, fragile, and can be easily scratched and delaminated during chemical mechanical planarization. Rajiv Singh, Deepika Singh, and Marie-Beatrice Dufourg of Sinmat Inc., in a joint effort with the Univ. of Florida, both of Gainesville, have developed Soft, Elastic Nanosponge Materials that have significant advantages over to state-of-the-art slurries based on conventional particles.
Soft elastic nanosponges are sub-micron-sized silica particles (50 nm to 200 nm) that possess nano-sized pores (5Å to 50Å) comprising up to 60% of their volume, which transform hard and brittle silica particles into soft and rubber-like particles. The elastic nanosponges also exhibit a unique non-stick behavior on surfaces and remain buoyant and extremely well-dispersed when suspended in liquid solutions. Due to high surface area, the nanosponges contain a high density of surface groups which, in an aqueous environment, can react with other surfaces during the rubbing or polishing process. These properties make nanosponges ideal in semiconductor manufacturing to produce defect-free ultra-low k dielectrics-based interconnects for next-generation electronics.

Less is Better, and Less Expensive
Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) has become the fastest growing semiconductor manufacturing operation in the past decade and is expected to continue its high growth rate with the rapid introduction of copper/ultra-low K (dielectric constant) interconnects in the coming decade. Rajiv Singh, founder of Sinmat, Inc., Gainesville, Fla., and a professor at the Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, and the Univ. of Texas at Austin, and Seung-Mahn Lee, a graduate student at the Univ. of Florida, have developed Genteel Slurry , a mixture of chemicals and particles that enables a CMP process to make multi-level nanoscale copper wires to connect millions of transistors on an integrated circuit device.

The Genteel Slurry enables a single-step CMP process, replacing the current three-step copper CMP process now used in the industry, thereby tripling the output from 15 wafers/tool/hr to 45 wafers/tool/hr. Furthermore, this product enables a low-stress polishing, which is critical for delamination-free polishing of fragile ultra-low K materials expected to be adopted within the next five years. It also has real-time tunability and creates fewer device defects than conventional systems.

Genteel Slurry is expected to deliver hundreds of millions of dollars per year in value to large semiconductor manufacturers through reduced manufacturing costs and improved manufacturing performance.

Sinmat would like to thank the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Defense (DOD), and the Department of Energy (DOE) for financial support through their SBIR and STTR programs. Additionally, Sinmat would like to thank the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for funding through it's Advance Technology Program (ATP).