Australian semiconductor company: Photos

According to Greatbatch, the Homebush facility was previously a "captive fabrication" plant which handled manufacturing duties for Peregrine Semiconductor which created components for devices like the iPhone. Peregrine sold the facility in 2008 by a group of private buyers with the trading name Sapphicon.

The company recently teamed up with CSIRO to make chips for the world's largest network of radio telescopes.

Greatbach believes that the future lies in extreme miniaturisation, enabling more things to be done with the same amount of space and materials. For Sapphicon, it's about squeezing more circuitry into less space.

"That's what we do, we think small," said Greatbach told ZDNet.com.au, whose hand is pictured.

Sapphicon is more like a printing plant: chip designs are mocked up and trialed on computers before they are "printed" by electron beams through masks (like stencils) onto fine discs of silicon-coated sapphire.

A new facility and expansion worth $30 million is due to be completed next month. The company wants to reach a wider market than it currently does by making products to order.

"[We're] working on RF/Mixed Signal products plus isolator devices," said Greatbatch.

This particular piece of existing machinery is a X-ray refractor.

The chips and circuits are tested by sending electrical signals using automated probes.

Sapphicon employs "80-odd" people in their Sydney office and fabrication facility according to Greatbatch. Over the last 12 months, their R&D department has increased by 20 per cent in size.

The office's Intel-based desktops run Windows and Fedora Linux.

Pictured is an ion implanter, which fires ions at very high speeds to create microscopic semiconductor switches.

The company's partners and customers include: CSIRO, Johns Hopkins University, NASA, Yale, Macquarie and La Trobe Universities.

The semiconductor device lab pictured is a part of Sapphicon's technology development centre.

Sapphicon is "interested" in acquiring some more, yet-to-be-known, assets and companies.

Pictured above is "plasma etch equiptment". The company is keen on expanding and is currently hiring designers and engineers.

Getting ready to suit up. The air inside the fabrication facility is filtered so particles in the air cannot disrupt the manufacturing process. When you're working in microns, a renegade skin flake could wreak havoc.