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Intel Recognizes UA Engineering Research Center for Services to Semiconductor Industry

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Intel Recognizes UA Engineering Research Center for Services to Semiconductor Industry

April 4, 2011
The center was established 15 years ago with National Science Foundation funding, but is now funded by industry. The University of Arizona leads the interdisciplinary center, and has a long list of industry and academic partners.

Intel recently recognized the UA Engineering Research Center for its work with the semiconductor industry.

The commemorative plaque presented to the center in March 2011, at the center's annual meeting, described the ERC's research as "outstanding."

"Receiving this award from Intel is a good indication that we are relevant," said ERC director and Regents Professor Farhang Shadman of the UA College of Engineering's chemical and environmental engineering department. "Industry end-users such as Intel are very happy with the center and satisfied with its progress," said Shadman, who has led the center since its inception.

The center's full name indicates its mission and scope, and its importance to the semiconductor industry: the SRC/Sematech Engineering Research Center for Environmentally Benign Semiconductor Manufacturing.

The center was established 15 years ago with National Science Foundation funding, but is now funded by industry. "NSF usually funds these centers for 9 or 10 years, and very few centers survive past that point," Shadman said. "But we have managed to become fully industry funded, bringing in about $4 million annually from a variety of sources."

The University of Arizona leads the interdisciplinary center, and has a long list of industry and academic partners. "We have over 35 industrial members, and the collaboration involves 10 universities, roughly 23 faculty members, and 37 graduate students," Shadman said. "It's much larger than it used to be in terms of participants."

ERC researchers accept recognition by Intel for their outstanding contribution to the semiconductor industry.

Boon for Students

This huge collaborative effort provides many benefits for students, Shadman said. Because the ERC research agenda is driven by industry, students who work within it have up-to-the-minute knowledge of the engineering issues that concern industry most. "All our students always get good industry or research jobs," he said.

A major theme of this year's annual ERC review meeting was nanomaterials and nanomanufacturing. Three years ago, in response to industry demand, the ERC embarked on a program of research in this area, and some results are now ready for presentation to industry.

As the world's biggest semiconductor company, Intel is a major force in shaping semiconductor research at the center. "We are working with Intel on a high-volume nanomanufacturing initiative," Shadman said. "The program is very strong, and nanomaterials and nanomanufacturing are going to be a major focus for the center."

Chip makers such as Intel are driven by the need to squeeze more and more transistors onto a silicon chip. More means smaller, hence the "nano" aspect of this work, which takes place at the atomic scale.

In 1965, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore noted that the number of transistors that can fit on a chip doubled every two years, and that this trend would continue. This became "Moore's Law," and it continues to drive technological advances in the semiconductor industry.

Shadman notes that the doubling period is now about 18 months, but that a limit will inevitably be reached with silicon. "Silicon has been the main substrate," he said. "But we are bringing in new materials."

With the introduction of new materials, Shadman said, the work of the center becomes even more relevant. "New materials bring with them new environmental, safety and health issues," he said. "And these new materials need to be studied."