Intel Recognizes UA Engineering Research Center for Services to Semiconductor Industry

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."