Fabless mixed-signal firm Nanotech Semiconductor has received an
investment boost as it offers its first CMOS devices for in-car
optical fibre networking based on the MOST bus standard.
The Surrey-based start-up has received $6m in investment from
venture backers Pond and Atlantic Bridge.
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It is applying broadband amplifier and optical transceiver
expertise gained in the telecoms system market to other fibre-based
data comms applications.
“The apparent distinction (in semiconductor device design)
between datacomms and telecoms over fibre was merely historical,
with GaAs products typically used in telecoms and silicon bipolar
for datacomms,” Gary Steele, founder and CEO of Nanotech told
Electronics Weekly.
The firm’s approach was to achieve the speed and noise
performance of GaAs amplifiers and laser drivers in standard CMOS
with its production cost benefits.
“As a result we have effectively been able to combine both
markets and reach economies of scale otherwise unobtainable,”
said Steele.
The firm has begun production of transmitter and receiver ICs
for plastic fibre-based in-car data networks based on the MOST
standard. It also has low noise transimpedance receiver amplifiers
for 622Mbit/s telecoms fibre networks based on the SONET
standard.
“We have identified several more markets that historically
have been treated differently, but with a little imagination, and
the right team, can be addressed simultaneously,” said
Steele.
Nanotech uses a basic 0.35µm CMOS process and has devices
produced at a Chinese fab.
Steele and his team at Nanotech have previous experience of the
fibre comms market through Microcosm, a company he founded in the
1990s and which was acquired by US chip firm Conexant for $160m in
2000.
“Many of the team hail from Gary’s previous
business, Microcosm Communications, and so already had a
track-record of world firsts in CMOS,” said Richard Irving
from investor Pond.
www.nanosemi.co.uk