Freescale Innovation Lab Produces Record Album Out of Silicon Wafer

Freescale Semiconductor’s Discovery Lab, chartered as a source of “disruptive innovation,” engineered a 45-rpm record album out of an eight-inch silicon wafer, the company said Friday. Freescale engineers developed a program that translated audio files to a type of lithographic plate used for the production of microelectronics, said the company. The mask with phonograph grooves was used to process silicon wafers in Freescale’s Oak Hill Technology Fab in Austin, it said. A silicon wafer is more durable than vinyl and could be used for “nostalgia or niche products, such as platinum records,” said David Kramer, director of the Freescale Discovery Lab, but the company has no plans to market the technology. The project will be a test vehicle to demonstrate lithography and etch capabilities that can be used to make sensors and other devices, he said.