Arieca Inc., a local startup that spun out of Carnegie Mellon University in 2018, announced that it has raised $6.5 million in its Series A funding round.
The funding round was led by Nissan Chemical Corp. and Pittsburgh-based 412 Venture Fund. Also participating in the round was ROHM Co. Ltd., Monozukuri Venture Funds, Mountain State Capital, Innovation Works and Carnegie Mellon University.
“We have followed Arieca’s progress since their formation and have been impressed by their progress attracting customers and partners in the semiconductor industry with a large market size. We are delighted to be partnering with a world class team to help them bring an innovative material solution to a growing market,” said Ilana Diamond, general managing partner at 412 Venture Fund.
Arieca also announced that it entered into a research agreement with ROHM Co. Ltd., which provides power semiconductor devices for the electric vehicle market, to utilize Arieca’s Liquid Metal Embedded Elastomer Technology in electric vehicle power modules.
Arieca produces liquid-metal based thermal interface materials for applications in high-performance computing and high-power semiconductor devices. Specifically, Arieca produces two main products: TIMbber, or an adaptable thermal interface material for high-performance semiconductor and power devices, and Thubber, a soft and stretchable thermally conductive elastomer. The company said that it will use the investments to accelerate its product development and scale up manufacturing of its liquid metal-based thermal interface materials.
“The semiconductor industry is facing an acute heat problem. Further progress in manufacturing of microprocessors with node sizes of 7nm, 4nm and even lower sizes in the roadmap require an acceleration in packaging technologies to compensate for the ever-growing heat densities in the next generation of devices," Navid Kazem, CEO and co-founder of Arieca, said. “We, at Arieca, are developing Liquid Metal-based TIMs to give the designers the performance of liquid metals with the ease of manufacturing of thermal greases.”
