AKHAN Semiconductor Inc of Chicago, IL, USA has formally opened its new global headquarters and production facility at 940 Lakeside Drive in Gurnee, Illinois, after beginning operations there in June. The firm also says that its first commercial customer will take delivery of the first AKHAN diamond semiconductor based-technology products in first-quarter 2016.
The opening ceremony was attended by Gurnee mayor Kristina Kovarik, US Senator Dick Durbin, Illinois State Senator Melinda Bush, US Representatives Randy Hultgren and Robert Dold, and other state, local and international dignitaries.
The opening of the production facility is the culmination of a decade of development and collaboration. AKHAN Semiconductor Inc was formed in early 2013 as a subsidiary of AKHAN Technologies Inc, which was founded in 2007 by Adam Khan to commercialize Diamond Lattice Technology for diamond-based semiconductor devices. The firm's IP portfolio combines AKHAN's Miraj Diamond portfolio with low-temperature diamond deposition technology developed by Argonne National Laboratory's Center for Nanoscale Materials.
AKHAN is now actively hiring to staff the new facility, which is expected to employee 100 people in the next two years.
"As a native of Gurnee, I am proud to help spur a new era of innovation and semiconductor technology in my hometown, in the state of Illinois, right here in the Diamond Prairie," said CEO & founder Adam Khan. "Our diamond semiconductor based technology will enable a new generation of commercial, industrial and consumer products such as flexible and transparent displays that can be used in wearables and thinner consumer devices that last longer," he adds. "On the commercial side, we expect to develop new products such as diamond windows for industrial, defense and aerospace applications."
AKHAN's technology is based on a process that uses man-made diamond rather than silicon to produce new chip materials that are more cost effective, operate at higher temperatures, are thinner and require less power, it is claimed. The development is a result of the combination of two breakthroughs: the ability to use nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) films and a new doping process the makes it possible to use NCD as a semiconductor material.
