Macquarie University has ratcheted-up ambitions for commercialising technology in the semiconductor industry, launching an on-campus Silicon Platforms Lab (SiP Lab) in collaboration with local startup Atto Devices.
The structure of the collaboration is effectively a mirror opposite of a university ‘spin-out’.
It is instead a university ‘spin-in’, where industry startup Atto Devices has been brought into the university, and will co-locate at the SiP Lab to serve as the primary commercialisation pathway for the labs research.
The partners say there is a genuine opportunity for Australia to build a vibrant, fabless semiconductor industry – with the focus in chip design and technology integration, rather than on foundry services.
The investment is a significant expansion of Macquarie’s semiconductor research and education capabilities and will deliver an important technology and skills boost to the industry in Australia.
Atto Devices designs advanced hardware platforms and custom silicon chips/chiplets that have applications in compute, communications and sensing for the research, defence and commercial markets.
Atto Devices is founded by industry veterans Neil Weste, Jeremy Hallett and Mike Boers.
The SiP Lab, established within the Faculty of Science and Engineering, will focus on advanced silicon system-on-chip (SoC) and system-in-package (SiP) technologies. The SiP Lab will work to integrate quantum sensors, photonics, bioinformatics, biosensors and other emerging fields onto leading edge silicon platforms.
“We are bringing experienced industry [skills] into the University to work directly alongside academic staff, this enables us to undertake research into novel silicon design as well as train the next generation of engineers,” says Mike Boers, who is both an Industry Professor at the University and chief technology officer at Atto Devices.
“Fabless integrated circuit companies are an extremely high value component of the semiconductor value chain. A strong sovereign design capability will support many industries.”
“We support the development of local semiconductor manufacturing capability including sovereign advanced packaging facilities (like the AMRF phase 2), and possibly mature CMOS nodes (16-28nm), but not without a similar level of investment into fabless design and training.
“A strong design industry will compliment local manufacturing capability.”
The initiative brings together three key industry experts. Professor Boers has had a lengthy career in fabless semiconductor design across the US and Australia. Wi-Fi inventor and entrepreneurs David Skellern and Neil Weste – both Macquarie alumni – bring decades of expertise as pioneers in VLSI design, and commercial experience that bridges academic research with real-world industry applications.
“The SiP Lab will enable us to push the boundaries of silicon-based semiconductor research,” Professor Boers said.
“Having a partnership between the SiP Lab and Atto Devices creates a robust ecosystem for translating cutting-edge research into marketable products, and enables us to help support the training and development of the next generation of engineers.”
The initiative builds on the university’s existing focus semiconductor research in Australia, including through the Macquarie Analog Devices Laboratory (MAD Lab) within the School of Engineering.
MAD Lab is best known for semiconductor modelling and circuit design for millimetre-wave and advanced material – including gallium nitride – semiconductors, with applications in specialist radio frequency systems.
Atto Devices chief executive Jeremy Hallett says Australian expertise is competitive on the global markets and that it makes sense to focus on global semiconductor opportunities.
“The world’s economy is built upon semiconductor technology, and Australian innovation and experience is competitive on the world stage,” Mr Hallett said.
“As a growing company it makes sense for us to partner with Macquarie University to collaborate in progressing the state-of-the-art as well as building the pipeline of talent needed to achieve global scale.”
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