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Diamond semiconductor startup Evince in liquidation

Diamond semiconductor startup Evince in liquidation

Business news |
By Nick Flaherty

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UK diamond deeptech startup Evince Technology has collapsed, citing a lack of long term funding.

Evince Technology developed a synthetic diamond semiconductor process that can be used to build diodes and transistors that are smaller and higher power than silicon.

The company was founded in 2004 to commercialise research from the University of Newcastle and relaunched in 2013, with a funding round in 2016. It had been struggling over recent months to raise additional funds.

“Over the last six months we have had deal with a succession of time-wasters looking for instant wins and running a mile when they realise the investment [equivalent to the cost of a couple of volume semiconductor production tools] it would take to get first products to markets desperate for change,” said Dr Gareth Taylor, CEO.

“The prospect of building a multi-billion-dollar world-leading company massively colliding head-on with perceived easier goal of getting to a quick exit and a fast buck. We’ve also had to deal with so many saying ‘if only you had been based in the US [or Europe] you would have had no problem getting the investment and support you needed’,” he added.

The diamond semiconductor company was also part of a recent collaboration, the North East Advanced Material Electronics (NEAME) cluster group, to boost the semiconductor activity in the region. The group includes flexible chip maker PragmatIC Semiconductor and materials specialist II-VI, which both have fabs in the area, as well as Filtronic, Axenic, Inex, Isocom, Kromek and Viper RF.

Diamond remains a key material for power devices and quantum applications, from quantum computers to quantum sensors.

The UK semiconductor strategy, which recommended support for deeptech compound semiconductor startups such as Evince and a semiconductor incubator run by Silicon Catalyst, came too late to encourage provide support.

“For the technology watchers, do keep an eye out in the coming years for news of commercial ‘breakthroughs’ in diamond electronics based on field enhanced quantum tunnelling,” said Taylor. “And when you do spot something, which will inevitably come from somewhere not the UK, remember there was once a small British start-up company that got there years ahead of them. It was called Evince Technology.”

www.evincetechnology.com

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