The US semiconductor industry and the US federal government have banded together to launch an initiative dedicated to studying the technological challenges that chipmakers will face in the future. The Focus Center Research Program, announced Monday by the Semiconductor Industry Association, is currently in negotiations with groups led by the University of California at Berkeley and Georgia Institute of Technology over the granting of multimillion dollar research and development contracts. The work to be carried out will center on new methodologies in designing, testing and connecting microchip components. Once the first two centers are up and running, four additional centers will be established, according to current plans. The idea is to create a nationwide multi-university network of research centers that will help keep US semiconductor firms at the forefront of the global marketplace. The SIA said the program is the most ambitious undertaking for the industry since the formation of the Sematech consortium in 1987. The FCRP funding will cover salaries for faculty and students, as well as facilities and equipment. That money, in turn, will come from the member companies of the SIA (50%), Semi/Sematech – the consortium of US semiconductor equipment and materials suppliers (25%) – and the US Department of Defense (25%). The universities themselves will not be required to kick in any funding beyond what they may already be spending on research in the area. The Semiconductor Research Corp has created a new subsidiary, the Microelectronics Advanced Research Corp (MARCO), specifically for the purpose of managing the program on behalf of industry participants. Total funding for the program will eventually reach $100m per annum, with $10m going to each of the six research centers and the remaining $40m to MARCO.
