KONYA, Türkiye

In a historic first, a new 5 millimeter calibration chip produced at a Turkish university – ensuring accurate measurement by devices used in laboratories, for a good price – is getting interest from buyers from abroad.

In collaboration with Necmettin Erbakan University in the central Turkish city of Konya and the Turkish lab equipment manufacturer Teknotip, the project to produce chips used in calibration measurements of electronic, optical, and electro-optical devices was launched at the university’s Science and Technology Application and Research Center.

Yasin Ramazan Eker, the center’s deputy director and project coordinator, told Anadolu that nanometric-sized materials are used in R&D and production.

Eker said that the calibrated high-tech measuring instruments are needed to control sensitive production processes.

He added that the calibration process itself can be done by various independent firms and organizations.

“The chip has a footprint of 5 millimeters (0.2 inches) and only weighs 0.25 grams (less than .0001 ounce), we sell them for $100 each,” told Eker.

Eker said the chip is getting interest from international companies, including a Dutch firm and a company from Silicon Valley.

Physicist Oguz Dogan, one of the project researchers, stressed that the chip is a high value-added product, which is commercialized in cooperation with the chip industry and the university.

Dogan noted that calibration is a very important stage in laboratories, especially in micro and nano applications, adding that chips used in these applications have not been produced in Türkiye before.

Arda Mungan, one of the project partners and the company’s founder, highlighted that the chip is sold for $200 a gram, making it more expensive than gold, which costs $100 a gram.

“The target market is Silicon Valley, Germany, and the Netherlands, where there are well-known companies in the semiconductor industry,” he added. “We’ve also gotten interest from Japan. When we start active marketing, I think we’ll be able to sell much more effectively.”

*Writing by Emir Yildirim