The round was led by Benchmark Capital and DAG Ventures, with all prior Series A investors, including Advantest Corp. and Cadence Design Systems Inc. participating.

The money is set to be used for market development for the company's design-for-e-beam (DFEB) technology. In conjunction with this funding round Nick Pianim, managing director of DAG Ventures, is joining the D2S board of directors. Pianim augments D2S' outside board members, which include Alex Balkanski, general partner of Benchmark Capital, and Lance Glasser, industry consultant and former chief technology officer at KLA-Tencor.

The exponential increase in development cost that has accompanied the move to smaller geometries, not least in mask costs, has made the production of advanced ICs in small volumes unfeasible using traditional manufacturing processes. DFEB technology is intended to tackle this dilemma.

D2S is led by Aki Fujimura, who serves as chairman and CEO. Fujimura was the co-inventor of the X architecture, an attempt made earlier this decade to promote the use of 45-degree routing on integrated circuits. He also served as a chief technology officer for new business incubation at Cadence. That initiative, while achieving some tape outs, has not been spectacularly successful.

This latest initiative is attempting to build market momentum with industry leaders. In February of this year, D2S launched the eBeam Initiative with a group of 19 other companies. The eBeam Initiative aims to increase investment in multiple supply chains and reduce the barriers to adoption.

Related articles:

Initiative forms around e-beam direct write

Firms to collaborate on e-beam direct write

X-based routing broadens reach with fab move