Government funding for semiconductor business

Semitech Semiconductor is one of the 17 innovative Australian companies to benefit from the Australian Government’s latest round of funding worth AU$7.8 million.

The latest funding offers, part of the Entrepreneurs’ Programme, saw companies receive grant offers between $69,000 and $1 million in commercialisation assistance, helping them to develop their products and services.

Semitech provides the semiconductor devices that enable the transformation of the electricity grid into a smart grid. Their chips help to transform homes into energy-aware ‘smart homes’ that react to conditions on the grid, thus implementing a worldwide communications network based on the existing power grid. The recipients include NewSouth Innovations, Amaero Engineering, Kinetic Elements and Vector International amongst others.

“I’m pleased to see such groundbreaking ideas coming from Australian companies, including yield maximising technologies for the minerals industry, production technologies for effective and cheaper solar cells and 3D printing for aerospace manufacturing,” said Assistant Minister for Innovation Wyatt Roy.

“This support will help the recipients commercialise their ideas to take advantage of global market opportunities and protect their intellectual property, ensuring Australia sees the benefits.” To date, the program has provided 102 commercialisation grants worth more than $54 million to support Australian innovation.