Homerun, UC Davis produce fused silica glass

Executive Summary

• Homerun Resources Inc. and the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) successfully produced fused silica glass from raw silica sand at the Santa Maria Eterna (SME) project using a one-step thermoelectric fast Joule heating (FJH) process.
• The company filed a new patent application for a femtosecond laser purification process that increases silica purity from 99.75% to >99.99% without hazardous chemicals.
• This development supports Homerun's strategy to supply high-purity advanced materials for semiconductor, photonics, and electronics markets, capitalizing on growing demand driven by AI infrastructure.

Key Details

• Fused Silica Production: Bench-scale tests confirmed that SME silica sand can be converted directly into fused silica glass using FJH, eliminating the need for chemical reagents and reducing processing steps compared to conventional multistep methods.
• Technical Specifications: The FJH process utilized a new "tube-within-tube" configuration (silica in inner tube, graphite substrate in outer tube) to sustain high temperatures. Processing occurred rapidly after peak temperatures reached approximately 2,000°C (above silica's 1,710°C melting point).
• Patent Application: A new patent was filed for a "process for obtaining high-purity silica sand and the resulting product."
  • Method: Femtosecond laser ablation combined with grinding, vacuum, and analysis.
  • Purity Results: Impurities (titanium, calcium, magnesium, iron) were significantly reduced, raising purity from 99.75% to greater than 99.99%.
  • Environmental Impact: The process avoids hazardous chemicals and reduces energy consumption compared to traditional mechanical or chemical purification.
• Next Steps: The company is initiating scaling tests using off-the-shelf equipment to increase production capacity immediately following the successful bench tests.
• Market Context: The release highlights the strategic importance of fused silica in semiconductor fabrication, high-performance optics, and AI data centers (referencing Nvidia's $4B investment in photonics). Key applications include lithography lenses, wafer substrates, fiber optics, and quantum computing substrates.
• Verification Status: The UC Davis fused silica glass testing results have not been independently verified.

Notable Quotes

• Subhash Risbud, Director, Risbud Research Group at UC Davis: "Critical to the success of our FJH process was incorporating a conductive medium for the current to flow while yet keeping the silica powder separated... Based on our results, the silica to fused silica glass synthesis has worked using our FJH equipment."
• Brian Leeners, CEO, Homerun Resources: "Utilizing the fast joule heating method to process a raw silica sample from the Homerun SME silica sand project into fused silica glass is a big step in our advanced materials development... If the energy source is renewable, then this is a completely green process."