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A material being developed as an alternative to silicon could bring huge revenues to Brunei in the form of royalties once the material hits commercial production, an academic said.

Japanese and Bruneian researchers have partnered on a project to build a plant that will manufacture the semiconductor material seen as a cheap and more efficient alternative to silicon.

Called molybdenum trioxide, the material is a product of years of research in Japan.

Semiconductors like silicon are used for chips and in low-voltage electronic appliances and gadgets.

Researchers from Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) will be working with the Japanese researchers to get secondary Intellectual Property (IP) rights to the new semiconductor material for commercial production and development.

Chee Ming Lim, dean of the Faculty of Science at the Universiti Brunei Darussalam, said the material had the potential to be a huge revenue generator for Brunei, adding that perhaps at a later stage they would need some sort of multi-agency collaboration to ensure the commercial success of producing the material. "Once you own the IP, I can give you many examples in the world, where manufacturing does not necessarily need to be physically inside the country but you still earn your royalties - billions and billions of dollars.

"It's not only on the academic front if we were to push it to be successful, (UBD) can only do the technical side but you need multi-agency cooperation and multi-level understanding of (its) nature," he said.

In a forum on Wednesday about the product, Lim said that more important elements needed to be addressed before any commercial viability could be identified. "I think the most important thing at the moment is to generate the secondary IP for Brunei to produce, and if we don't produce it here then we can always outsource."

The primary IP is held by the Japanese researcher, Takashi Katoda, from the Kochi University of Technology's Faculty of Engineering.

Asked what kind of research infrastructure would be required, Lim said that there were several models which could be applied but it was still too early to say which one. "Number one, very importantly Professor Katoda already holds the primary IP. What it means is that if other people start copying (the material), he can take legal action and that's already a very big step. Number two, what we are doing here in these early discussions is how to bring these ideas of the fabrication of molybnedum trioxide ideas and applications to the next level, meaning to the product level. But before we can do that, there are other properties of the material production or manufacturing techniques that need to be refined, and that, I believe will cost something like US$30 million to US$40 million in the next two to three years."

Komitsu Yamasaki, head adviser at Azabu Management and Finance Consultants Corporation, said it is only a matter of time to bring the material to commercial viability. He added that many years of research and development had already been done on the material and the next steps would be to conduct further research to develop appropriate commercial venues and testing.

From Brunei's end, Peter Hing, associate professor at the Physics Department of UBD's Faculty of Science, said setting up a multi-agency is key. "You need to inform at all levels if Brunei is to capitalise on this new development and that is something which the dean here, and myself, hope to meet the people, the movers and the shakers, as well. That's very important, because you're talking about $50 million investment, initially."

He said getting the secondary IP rights would depend on how fast the research and development could be done to bring the material up to commercial production. He also noted that attaining funding assistance from other agencies such as the Brunei Economic Development Board or ministries, would not be ruled out. Most likely initially it will be from the Ministry of Development, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Finance, he said, adding the Brunei Investment Agency must also be involved as the first step for Brunei to take in securing its hold on this new material.

He said that it was possible to reach commerciable viability within a year of research and development but it would depend on how quickly certain areas could start to be developed.

Yamasaki said that the collaboration between his visiting group and UBD would also provide opportunities for local students to travel to Japan and learn under Professor Katoda, to become specialists in this field. "Our proposal is for Brunei to send these people to Japan so they can be trained under Professor Katoda and by the time they (come) back to Brunei, they can be a specialist of this first thing to ever be invented in the whole world and they (would) have a kind of authority here for this particular product."

Lim said, however, that details of whether this would be funded by the Brunei or Japanese government still had to be ironed out. He also said that increased awareness and interest in molybdenum trioxide from Brunei would be in line with how big of an industry this material would be in the future.

Professor Katoda also added that the forum was the first time the material had been spoken about outside of Japan, where it has already garnered a huge level of interest.

The Brunei Times