D.S.I.R. makes custom silicon chip

Press, 13 February 1986, Page 24

D.S.I.R. makes custom silicon chip

PA Wellington A D.S.I.R. team has made what is believed to be New Zealand’s first custom silicon chip, using second-hand equipment. The Minister of Science and Technology, Mr Tizard, has said that the chip was made from equipment bought overseas at bargain prices. The D.S.I.R.’s assistant director-general, Mr Mike Collins, said the chip could have many advantages for the electronics industry and for industries based on electronic circuits. “It reduces the cost of electronics, improves reliability, increases the flexibility and reduces the size of electronic installations,” he said. The silicon chip had been developed over the

last three years by the D.S.LR’s physics and engineering laboratories as a learning facility, primarily intended to allow scientists and university electronics students to learn the design and manufacture of silicon custom chips. However, Mr Collins said, the facility’s engineers could help New Zealand industries design their own custom chips and develop prototype quantities. “The D.S.I.R. is already working with a number of New Zealand manufacturers on possible custom chips to meet their particular requirements,” he said. Although the facilities were not designed for large-scale commercial production, they would be ideal for industries want-

ing to design and fabricate chips and test ideas before they decided on final designs. The D.S.I.R. would be interested in such joint’ developments, Mr Collins said. If big production runs were subsequently required, they could then be commissioned from overseas commercial facilities, using the New zealand-developed designs. The D.S.I.R. had developed its silicon chip facility using entirely secondhand equipment, bought mainly from the United States, he said. “The facility cost less than the original estimate of $500,000 to set up.”