Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC), today announced the release of $26 million in added research funding for its New Science Team (NST) Joint University Microelectronics Program (JUMP). JUMP will fund 24 additional research projects spanning 14 unique U.S. 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,” said Ken Hansen, President and CEO of Semiconductor Research Corporation. “Our strategic partnerships with industry, academia, and government agencies foster the environment needed to realize the next wave of semiconductor technology innovations.”
“A new wave of fundamental research is required to unlock the ultimate potential of autonomous vehicles, smart cities, and Artificial Intelligence (AI),” said Dr. Michael Mayberry, Senior Vice President and 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.”
The JUMP program, a consortium consisting of 11 industrial participants and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is one of two complementary research programs for the NST project—a 5-year, greater than $300 million SRC initiative launched this January. JUMP and its six thematic centers will advance a new wave of fundamental research focused on the high-performance, energy-efficient microelectronics for communications, computing, and storage needs for 2025 and beyond.