SCIENCE/ TECHNOLOGY : Lasarray Hopes ‘Mini-Factory’ Can Revolutionize Custom Chip Business

Tim Fitzgibbons says his company’s new technique for designing and manufacturing custom computer chips could do for the semiconductor industry what one-hour film development did for the photo-processing business.

Fitzgibbons is president of Lasarray Corp., a young Irvine company that has developed a “mini-factory” intended to speed the design and manufacture of computer chips tailor-made for specific uses.

Customized chips are used in such things as “talking” dolls, personal computers, appliances, phone equipment and defense-related gear. Their general purpose is to distinguish a company’s products from those of its competitors.

Customized chips--known as application-specific integrated circuits, or ASICs-- were introduced in the late 1970s and have become one of the hottest growth areas of the semiconductor industry. Sales topped $5 billion last year and are climbing fast.

Lasarray’s system was developed by its Swiss-based parent company, Lasarray SA. The system is being marketed to manufacturers that use custom chips to build more powerful and sophisticated products. Because most companies do not have the capability to manufacture their own computer chips, they typically contract with semiconductor makers to make the chips for them.

The Lasarray system, which costs $4 million, consists of a high-powered personal computer work station for designing chips and a small “factory” that uses laser technology to build them. The factory comprises three transportable modules that can fit into a room measuring 40 by 40 feet.

The Lasarray system enables companies to design and manufacture custom chips in-house. Four people are required to run the factory, and chips can be produced in less than 24 hours, instead of the weeks or months it typically takes to get them from an outside supplier, Fitzgibbons said.

Lasarray claims that the system’s $4-million cost is about 5% to 10% of the cost of a typical chip fabrication facility.

“This technique allows people who don’t want to be in the semiconductor business but who need custom chips to have them without the huge investment usually required,” said Fitzgibbons, a former chief engineer for Rockwell International’s military microelectronics business in Orange County. “There are other clever people working on this problem, and ours is just one of several approaches.”

It remains to be seen whether the Lasarray product will catch on in the market. Lasarray has sold only two of its systems since it began marketing them in February.