SEMICONDUCTOR RESEARCH CENTER
Creating new tech solutions
BY CHRIS SUTTON
UCLA Today
UCLA has been selected to lead a new, multimillion-dollar research center
for semiconductor research. The center, to be established Sept. 1, is
part of an initiative by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA),
the industry’s largest trade association, and the Department of
Defense to expand semiconductor research at universities.
Electrical Engineering Professor Kang Wang of the Henry Samueli School
of Engineering and Applied Science has been named director of the Focus
Center, which involves researchers from UCLA’s departments of materials
science, chemistry and mathematics and from 11 other universities, including
MIT, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara and USC.
Wang’s team will explore the challenges facing the semiconductor
industry as the technology that powers today’s computers grows ever
smaller. With more and more transistors and other components squeezed
onto a single chip, manufacturers are rapidly approaching the physical
limits posed by current chip-making processes. Researchers hope to find
new ways to shrink semiconductor technology “to the ultimate limit
and beyond,” Wang said.
“Advances in nanotechnology, molecular electronics and quantum
computing are creating the potential for new technology solutions, and
we want to explore them,” Wang said. “University-based research
collaborations, like this center, are vital to sustaining long-term growth
in the semiconductor industry.”
UCLA becomes the fifth site for a Focus Center since the Microelectronics
Advanced Research Corporation (MARCO), a subsidiary of SIA, launched the
Focus Center Research Program together with the Department of Defense
in 1998. The new center will be called the MARCO Focus Center on Functional
Engineered Nano Architectonics. The term “architectonics”
is derived from a Greek word meaning “master builder” —
which aptly describes Wang and his researchers as they build new materials
and devices for the electronics industry.
The SIA selected UCLA on June 13. Contractual negotiations began this
month to determine the exact level of funding. |
