IBM and the Semiconductor Research Corp. have announced plans to open a new $61 million nanoelectronics research center on the campus of the University of Notre Dame.
Billed as the Midwest Academy for Nanoelectronics and Architectures, the center will link Notre Dame and Purdue University with the development resources of national laboratories and the technology industry. Academia and business will partner to develop a new class of semiconductor materials and devices – nanoelectronics – that stretches beyond today’s state-of-the-art chip technologies.
Technology giants such as AMD, Freescale, IBM, Intel, Micron and Texas Instruments, in partnership with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, sponsor the Semiconductor Research Corp.’s Nanoelectronics Research Initiative (NRI), which will spearhead research at the Indiana center. A team of university professors, students and researchers as well as engineers and other professionals will begin research at the center later this year.
The center will be led by Notre Dame and include a network of universities in the Midwest, with nearly one third of the research taking place 150 miles southwest of the center at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. Other universities in the collective research team include University of Illinois, Penn State University and the University of Michigan.
Notre Dame will invest up to $40 million in the new center and the state will provide up to $15 million. IBM and the NRI have committed to investing $5 million, and the City of South Bend will invest $1 million in the operation
“Semiconductor technology is the underpinning to everything from the cell phones in our pockets to the supercomputers in our research labs,” said NRI Director Dr. Jeff Welser, “so nanoelectronics progress is crucial to innovation not only in all areas of science and technology, but to our nation’s continued economic growth.”
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