Québec City startup Femtum has raised $16 million CAD to help semiconductor manufacturers on a microscopic level.
Femtum has developed a flagship laser cleaning and laser trimming solution designed for high-precision wafer-level semiconductor processing, a process that’s so precise it’s measured in microns. Femtum claims its lasers outperform standard semiconductor microprocessing and laser patterning methods while being able to integrate with industrial equipment to help manufacturers improve their yield, device reliability, and energy efficiency.
Femtum’s plans include a move into 25,000 square feet of new facilities in Québec City.
The company announced the oversubscribed Series A round on Thursday morning. The round was led with a $6-million investment from BDC Capital, with participation from Fonds de solidarité FTQ, Taiwan-based Cathay Venture, and returning investors i4 Capital, Boreal Ventures, Quantacet, Hamamatsu Ventures, and Eureka.
In a statement, BDC Capital partner Rémi Fournier said what impressed his fund was how “practical” Femtum’s technology is.
Femtum “drops into existing photonics manufacturing flows and delivers immediate ROI, higher yields, less scrap, and meaningfully lower power consumption at the chip level,” Fournier said, adding that laser trimming can reduce chip power by 20 to 40 percent, meaning better yields and less wasted energy.
Femtum said it will use the funding to support its international expansion, get its lasers into the hands of more advanced semiconductor manufacturers, and expand production capacity to support high-volume manufacturing. A spokesperson told BetaKit this includes a move into 25,000 square feet of new facilities in Québec City featuring “state-of-the-art” clean rooms for the development and production of laser systems.
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“Our objective is to establish ourselves as an essential component of the semiconductor manufacturing supply chain by delivering the requisite laser solutions for the production of future electronic and photonic devices,” co-founder and CEO Louis-Rafaël Robichaud said in a statement.
In a LinkedIn post, Robichaud said Cathay Venture’s investment brings “strong Taiwanese roots” that will help open important doors as the company deepens its presence in the global semiconductor ecosystem. Taiwan makes up 6.5 percent of the global semiconductor market share, according to a joint report by semiconductor industry groups in December.
Founded in 2017 by Robichaud and CTO Simon Duval, the startup is a spinoff from the Centre for Optics, Photonics and Lasers at Laval University. The company claimed its laser cleaning and laser trimming solutions are already validated by “Tier-1 global customers,” but did not disclose who those customers are. Femtum last raised a $5 million CAD seed round in early 2024.
Feature image courtesy of Femtum.