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Center for Microelectronics Technologies
Center Expedites Maturation Process for New Microelectronics Technologies

Fact Sheet

An industry-focused, industry-defined R&D facility at Sandia National Laboratories can help bring advanced semiconductor technologies on line faster and minimize problems during startup of full-scale production.

The Center for Microelectronics Technologies is an incubation facility where advanced research concepts can be developed and then inserted into a fully equipped IC manufacturing line for refinement and validation testing. It also provides a neutral environment for researchers to work together on concepts for devices, circuits, and tooling/processes--future microelectronics with the potential to maintain the nation's technological advantage in semiconductor manufacturing.

Bridging the research-application gap
Sandia structured the center to meet needs and criteria defined by Semiconductor Research Corporation, an industry-formed body that funds university research in microelectronics.

The center's operations are also designed to bridge the gap between university research and the industrial environment. The prototyping and testing capabilities at the center are particularly applicable when the change in technology is too dramatic to allow direction transition from the university research lab to the industrial environment.

From concept to production
At the core of the center's capabilities is $20 million worth of IC processing equipment donated by International Business Machines Corporation and installed at Sandia's 37,500 ft 2 Microelectronics Development Laboratory (MDL). In combination with the MDL's extensive Class I clean room facilities, the Center for Microelectronics Technologies provides the equipment and technical staff to take concepts all the way from research and prototyping through testing and application.

University and industry personnel routinely work in residence at the center, including representatives from institutions and organizations such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of New Mexico, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, IBM, Intel, Westech Systems Inc., Lam Research Corporation, and applied Materials. Ongoing R&D projects encompass technologies such as low dielectric consistent insulators, diffusion barriers, etching techniques, advanced metallization, and planarizing ICs.

How to access the center
Access to Sandia's Center for Microelectronics Technologies is through an industrial board that reviews proposals.

[Microelectronics Center]

Sandia is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin Company, for the United States Department of Energy.
Contact
Harry Weaver
weaverht@sandia.gov

(505) 844-8145
(505) 844-7833 Fax

Visit our web site (http:/www.mdl.sandia.gov)

Last modified: August 9, 1999


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