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Applied Materials donates more than $5M in equipment, services to UC Berkeley
The tools will be used by engineering students to accelerate groundbreaking research in semiconductor and related nanofabrication technology that could fuel new discoveries.
By Ann Steffora Mutschler, Senior Editor -- Electronic News, 8/11/2008
With the aim of advancing semiconductor research, Santa Clara, Calif-based semiconductor manufacturing equipment leader Applied Materials is donating more than $5 million worth of processing equipment and services to the University of California, Berkeley’s Nanofabrication Laboratory in the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS), which complements equipment that the company donated to the university in 2002.
CITRIS is a center for graduate students, faculty and industrial researchers to create nanotechnology solutions for some of world’s most pressing social, environmental and health care issues.
“In order to accelerate breakthrough technologies, we believe it is important for students to work on advanced equipment and gain hands-on experience working on semiconductor devices. We are pleased to be part of CITRIS and look forward to working together with students and faculty, and to a stronger affiliation with the University,” commented Om Nalamasu, deputy CTO and VP of advanced technologies at Applied, in a statement.
The tools will be used by engineering students to accelerate groundbreaking research in semiconductor and related nanofabrication technology that could fuel new discoveries, noted Shankar Sastry, dean of the College of Engineering at Berkeley.
Further, CITRIS aims to foster work on novel semiconductor devices and their integration with nanowires/nanotubes, microelectomechanical systems (MEMS), optoelectronics, and bioelectronics, with the systems donated by Applied to be used to deposit two of the most critical thin films that are part of next-generation integrated circuits: epitaxy and gate dielectrics, the parties explained.
In addition, as a result of Applied’s investment, UC Berkeley said it will dedicate a collaborative laboratory within CITRIS, known as a “Collaboratory,” to Applied, which will be devoted to energy research. The Collaboratory will give faculty, students and industrial researchers the space for project-driven collaboration.
Applied believes the capability of The Collaboratory is a good combination with its solar strategy that is meant to bring significant change to the industry by developing new technologies that allow lower cost-per-watt solutions for solar cell manufacturing — with the macro goal of making solar power a significant alternative source of global energy.
Green Energy Technology Inc (GET) to support GET’s Applied SunFab Thin Film Line for solar module manufacturing.
Through Applied’s SunFab Performance Service program, the company aims to reduce operating costs while allowing a quick ramp to volume production.
Applied noted that the program already exceeded $100 million in contracts for both single and tandem junction thin film PV applications.
Under the agreement, Applied will service GET’s Applied SunFab Thin Film Line using an unmatched range of engineering, logistics and automation software technologies. In addition to preventive and corrective maintenance, spare parts management and analytical services, Applied and GET will work together to develop continuous improvement programs and total factory optimization to enable low operating costs and on going productivity gains.
