Irresistible Materials secures $400,000

Irresistible Materials, a technology spin-out of Birmingham University, has secured £235,000 ($400,000). The investment has been made by unnamed US and UK business angels as well as the Technology Strategy Board, the UK’s innovation agency.

The investment follows recent breakthroughs achieved by the spin-out, which was created in 2010 with the goal of developing and commercialising next-generation microchips. It previously raised £290,000 ($495,000) in July 2013.

The company has also hired Mark Shepherd as new chief executive, and appointed Tim Hazell of Mercia Fund Management to its board. Shepherd brings with him considerable expertise as he previously served as CEO for various spin-outs of Manchester University and Queen Mary University of London.

Irresistible Materials is working on creating 13nm and 11nm semiconductors via extreme ultraviolet light. The industry has been struggling to keep up with its own roadmap: Intel had to backtrack on its plans to build a new $5bn semiconductor fabrication plant in 2011, and has had to push back sales of its 14nm architecture to the end of 2014. Current technologies are barely able to reduce the size of microelectronic features much further and it is expected that they cannot be used beyond 2016. Irresistible Materials has been working on a new, patented material made out of fullerene to solve this problem, and has been able to achieve 11nm architecture.

Mark Shepherd said: “It is an exciting time for Irresistible Materials.  The team has made significant advances over recent months in order to prove the capabilities of the technology and enable us to engage further with the major players in the industry.  I am looking forward to seeing the company’s developments turn into real products that enable the next generation of semiconductor devices.”