26 July 2018

SRC releases $26m for JUMP program to fund 24 new research projects

© Semiconductor Today Magazine / Juno PublishiPicture: Disco’s DAL7440 KABRA laser saw.

Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) has released $26m in added research funding for the Joint University Microelectronics Program (JUMP), a consortium of 11 industrial participants and the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) that is is one of two complementary research programs for the New Science Team (NST) project — a five-year, greater-than-$300m SRC initiative launched in January. JUMP and its six thematic centers aim to advance a new wave of fundamental research focused on high-performance, energy-efficient microelectronics for communications, computing and storage needs for 2025 and beyond.

JUMP will fund 24 additional research projects spanning 14 US universities. The new projects will be integrated into JUMP’s six existing research centers. NST will continue to distribute funds over its five-year plan, and industrial sponsors are welcome to join to further accentuate those plans.

The awards have been given to 27 faculty and will enhance the program’s expertise in technical areas such as atomic layer deposition (ALD), novel ferroelectric and spintronic materials and devices, 3D and heterogeneous integration, thermal management solutions, architectures for machine learning and statistical computing, memory abstractions, reconfigurable RF frontends, and mmWave to THz arrays and systems for communications and sensing.

“The goal of the NST project is not only to extend the viability of Moore’s Law economics through 2030, but to also change the research paradigm to one of co-optimization across the design hierarchy stack through multi-disciplinary teams,” says SRC’s president & CEO Ken Hansen. “Our strategic partnerships with industry, academia and government agencies foster the environment needed to realize the next wave of semiconductor technology innovations,” he adds.

“A new wave of fundamental research is required to unlock the ultimate potential of autonomous vehicles, smart cities, and artificial intelligence (AI),” says Dr Michael Mayberry, senior VP & chief technology officer of Intel and the elected chairman of the NST Governing Council. “Such advances will be fueled by novel and far-reaching improvements in the materials, devices, circuits, architectures and systems used for computing and communications.”

Tags: ALD

Visit: www.src.org/about/nst