ASP Isotopes completes Silicon-28 enrichment facility
Silicon-28 is an isotope that is believed to enable quantum computing and will likely improve the performance of next generation semiconductors for artificial intelligence.
ASP Isotopes has completed the construction of a Silicon-28 enrichment facility in Pretoria, South Africa. The completion of the facility is broadly in line with previously communicated timelines. Today the Company started the commissioning phase of the facility’s construction and start-up, in preparation for supplying commercial quantities of Silicon-28 during 1H 2025.
ASP Isotopes expects highly enriched Silicon-28 to be required by manufacturers of next-generation semiconductors. Naturally occurring Silicon has three isotopes – 28, 29 and 30. The 29 isotope has a ½ positive spin, which is an intrinsic form of angular momentum carried by elementary particles. In contrast, highly enriched Silicon-28 is spin-free where qubits are protected from sources of decoherence that causes loss of quantum information. In addition to its potential to process superior information such as qubits, it is believed that highly enriched Silicon-28 can conduct heat 150% more efficiently than natural Silicon, which will potentially allow for chips to become smaller, faster and cooler.
ASP Isotopes’ proprietary technology can enrich isotopes of low atomic mass (such as silane (SiH4), molecular mass of 32), as well as isotopes of heavier masses. Other companies developing methods to enrich silicon generally either enrich silicon tetrafluoride (SiF4) or a halo silane. Neither of these chemicals can be used directly by a semiconductor company and require chemical converting processes that potentially harm the purity of the final product. By processing silane directly, the Company believes that its finished product will be a higher quality and may be used by semiconductor companies without the need for additional chemical conversion processes.
“To create faster, smaller next-generation semiconductors, the world is likely going to require materials that are currently not available in commercial quantities”, said Paul Mann, ASP Isotopes’ Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “ASP Isotopes is currently working on many isotopically pure elements that we believe will help semiconductor companies create the chips that the world will require in the future to enable technologies such as quantum computing and artificial intelligence”.
The Company has already signed two supply agreements with U.S.-based customers for highly enriched Silicon-28. The first is with a U.S.-based semiconductor company. The second is with a U.S.-based industrial gas company. The Company is currently in discussions with multiple other potential customers for the supply of highly enriched Silicon-28 and expects to sign more agreements during the next six months. The Company had previously communicated that the Silicon-28 enrichment facility would be capable of enriching over 10 Kg of Silicon-28, per annum, enriched to 99.995%. During the construction of the facility, the Company decided to expand the name plate capacity and based on pre-commissioning data the Company now believes that the plant will be capable of enriching over 50kg of Silicon-28, per annum, enriched to 99.995%.
Because of the size and scope of the enrichment facility, and in compliance with South Africa’s obligations under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the facility is managed under a comprehensive safeguard agreement (CSA) with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), whose representatives have visited and inspected the facility. Assuming the demand for Silicon-28 grows, the Company now expects to build multiple Silicon-28 enrichment facilities of larger nameplate capacity in multiple countries including Iceland and the United States.
This state-of-the-art facility contains several proprietary components, designed and engineered by ASP Isotopes. These include hermetically sealed, oil-free, helium-tight centrifugal compressors, pressure actuated relief (PAR) valves, molar mass meters and laminar flow meters. While the Company is unlikely to ever apply for a patent on the entire enrichment process, the Company expects to submit patent applications on several of the components contained within the facility, that have been designed and fabricated by ASP Isotopes.
