Problem: I was recently reading the wall street journal and came across an interesting quote about the future of silicon. As described by WSJs tech columnist Christopher Mims,
The reliable biennial doubling in the computational power of microchips, known as Moore’s Law, has been slowing, and could soon come to an end. It’s pretty much impossible, using current methods, to get the elements etched into silicon, like transistors, below about 3 nanometers in their smallest dimension. (To put that in perspective, a 3-nanometer film can be as few as 15 atoms thick.) So the tech industry is in search of other wonder materials to take good old silicon’s place—or at least combine with it to vastly increase its capabilities.
What’s next after silicon?
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Solution: This business would invest in the next generation of computing by investing in using alternative materials to create the graphics chips that power the modern world. As crazy as this may sound, it’s actually not too far away:
Researchers on the bleeding edge of physics, chemistry and engineering are experimenting with exotic-sounding substances to be used in microchips. They include graphene, black phosphorus, transition metal dichalcogenides, and boron nitride nanosheets. Collectively, they’re known as 2-D materials, since they are flat sheets only an atom or two thick. Largely unknown just 20 years ago, they are now regularly fabricated in labs, using methods as mundane as a blender and as tricky as high-temperature vapor deposition.
Some of the results of this research can already be found in devices on sale today, but the bulk are expected to turn up over the next decade, bringing new capabilities to our gadgets. These will include novel features such as infrared night-vision mode in smartphones, and profound ones such as microchips that are 10 times faster and more power-efficient. This could enable new forms of human-computer interaction, such as augmented-reality systems that fit into everyday eyeglasses.
The next generation of silicon won’t just engage with other metals or electronics, it will engage with microbes, antibodies, and more while being powered by material science and devices that we could only dream of.
While the business would focus on R&D, a large lift of adoption will be in sales: just as sales is one of the core parts of every software business that releases patches, this hardware business would sell the idea that silicon (and other hardware items) also need to be updated or patched in order to preserve relevance. This particular patch would be technical and also provide material benefits in performance and speed.
According to MarketWatch, the global Silicon Metal market was valued at $5.9 billion in 2019 and it is expected to reach $7.3 billion by the end of 2027, growing at a CAGR of 6.6% during 2021-2027. At this rate, a new player in the market with superior technology would be in a position to thrive.
Monetization: Sales of this new silicon product.
Contributed by: Michael Bervell (Billion Dollar Startup Ideas)
