Silex completes CRC-P project, produces silicon-28 to “highest purity ever achieved”

Silex Systems has announced successful completion of its three-year, $8 million ZS-Si Project, with its focus now on scaling up to production of 5 kilograms of ZS-Si (zero-spin silicon) annually at a target purity of 99.995 per cent.

In an ASX announcement on Wednesday, Silex said it had submitted a final report to the federal government’s Cooperative Research Centres Projects (CRC-P) program, saying it had met “all key target enrichment objectives”, produced ZS-Si “in the form of enriched silicon-28 at the highest purity of ~99.998%” and identified a path to production scalability. It added that this was “the highest purity ever achieved”.

Zero-spin silicon is a material crucial for enabling quantum processing chips based on silicon.

The project, with collaborators Silicon Quantum Computing (SQC) and UNSW, was supported by a $3 million grant from the federal Cooperative Research Centres Projects. It was based on a variation of Silex’s core technology of laser isotope separation, which it is using elsewhere to enrich uranium fuel.

Silex’s CEO and Managing Director Michael Goldsworthy called the successful completion “a pivotal event” for the company, enabling it to shift from engineering development to commercial production, and praising the project team.

“As stated before, the importance of success in this Project to the emerging silicon-based quantum computing industry has become critical, considering the unfolding global disruption to the main source of enriched silicon, being Russian centrifuge production,” he added.

“We look forward to transitioning our efforts towards building the first dedicated commercial production module while growing our customer base over the next few years.”

The two key outcomes were listed as production of gram quantities of zero-spin silicon and enriching this to record purity levels, as well as identification of a “potentially cost-effective path” into production.

The focus now would be planning to scale production, as well as designing and building “additional facilities for the conversion of the laser enrichment process output into two product forms requested by potential customers: gaseous silane and solid ZS.”

Further reading:

SILEX COMPLETES QUANTUM SILICON PILOT PLANT
SILEX EYES US NUCLEAR FUEL MARKET
QUANTUM TEAM FOCUSSED ON GETTING IT DONE HERE

Picture: Silex Systems