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Semiconductor industry establishes chip research center at MIRCVictor Rogers Institute Communications and Public Affairs A new microelectronics Focus Center Research Program will find ways to continue improving microchip performance. A consortium of universities led by Georgia Tech will receive up to $19.5 million over the next three years to conduct research leading to radically new architectures for the multilevel wiring networks connecting the billions of transistors on future microchips. The Focus Center Research Program, created by the U.S. semiconductor industry and the federal government, is negotiating with a university consortia led by Georgia Tech and the University of California at Berkeley, sites of the first two centers. Upon successful review of the first two centers, the industry plans to establish four more focus centers nationwide that will lead the efforts of a multi-university network. Funds allocated for the focus centers and participating universities will provide salaries for students and staff, along with equipment and upgraded facilities. Georgia Tech and UC Berkeley will develop interconnect technology, and design and testing sciences, respectively. The Georgia Tech-led consortium will address the five-to-ten levels of wiring that connect the billions of transistors in a microchip. Research will include the methodology, materials, and processes needed for connecting individual circuit components together in an integrated chip. Participants in the Tech-led consortium include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Cornell University, and State University of New York at Albany. The consortium’s joint proposal is funded at a level of $19.5 million for a 39-month period. The first $12.5 million is fully committed; the remaining $7 million will be awarded for the third year, dependent upon the consortium’s performance. “I believe that the faculty, staff, and student members of the multi-university Focus Center consortium represent the most potent academic team that has ever been assembled to attack the most critical problem of microchips, which is interconnections,” said Professor James D. Meindl, Focus Center director. “The participants at Tech are vital members of this team. The contributions of [Microelectronics Research Center] personnel, including Paul Kohl, Kevin Martin and Bonnie Morton, were a key ingredient in the preparation of our successful Focus Center proposal.” The Focus Center Research Program is the most ambitious research project that the U.S. semiconductor industry has undertaken since 1987 when it formed SEMATECH, a consortium of U.S. chip manufacturers created to establish U.S. leadership in manufacturing and process technology. “The semiconductor industry faces many technical challenges that need to be addressed if we are to maintain the rate of progress that has been the hallmark of our industry,” said Craig R. Barrett, president and chief executive officer of Intel Corporation and the head of the Semiconductor Industry Association’s (SIA) Technology Committee. “The Focus Center program is designed to create a nationwide multi-university network of research centers that will help keep the United States and U.S. semiconductor firms at the front of the global microelectronics revolution.” Georgia Tech President Wayne Clough said, “We are extremely pleased to have a lead role in undertaking path-breaking research into the next generation of circuitry technology in the semiconductor industry. We look forward to working through our university consortium partners and seeing this effort come to fruition. We are also anxious to help position Atlanta as a location where new developments occur in this high-tech industry.” The Focus Centers are a cooperative effort. Participants include member companies of the Semiconductor Industry Association, SEMI/SEMATECH, and the Department of Defense. The Focus Centers will be managed by the Microelectronics Advanced Research Corporation (MARCO), a new subsidiary of the Semiconductor Research Corporation.
Georgia Tech’s Focus Center will be housed at the Institute’s Pettit Microelectronics
Research Center.
Approved by the Office of External Affairs on 09/24/97
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