Possibly they already built such testsystems - on bigger nodes and in their lab?!
So some related question came to my mind:

- Which structures were tested at the UCONN lab during their R&D? (I guess already a RO if this is a standard setup?!) I guess for their patent work they tested a lot.

- Do they need a new set of masks for each structure they are testing?

- Can the lab / fab produce these masks on their own (so these high prices for the mask sets are relative low for the R&D) ?

- What did they test to confirm their Lab to Fab transition? Just processes or also structures?