Chip Consortium Plans $600M UAlbany Expansion

International Sematech, the research and development arm of Sematech, a consortium of international nanoelectronics manufacturers, will expand its operations at the University of Albany NanoCollege under a $600 million agreement announced yesterday.

Sematech (short for Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology), is a consortium of 15 major microchip manufacturers, including Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Intel, Freescale, Samsung, IBM, Hewlett Packard (HP) and Infineon. Its corporate offices are located in Austin, Texas; operations there include Sematech's advanced materials programs and ISMI, AMRC and ATDF subsidiaries. (See also: AMD Plans New Plants)

In 2002, International Sematech established its first center in Albany for the development and commercialization of nanolithography technology, the photographic process of imprinting patterns on transistors and then onto silicon wafers to build computer chips. The $400 million, 300-mm R&D center, called International Sematech North, is located at UAlbany's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) in the Albany NanoTech complex. More than 1600 scientists, engineers and others work at the complex, a $3.5 billion, 450,000-sq-ft facility currently undergoing a 750,000-sq-ft expansion.

Under the seven-year agreement announced Thursday, which has yet to be finalized, International Sematech will expand its existing R&D program at UAlbany and establish its headquarters there. The company will increase its workforce by 450 over three years and provide $25 million to fund research at colleges and universities at five centers around the state. State lawmakers said they plan to provide International Sematech with $300 million over five years to help it buy advanced semiconductor process equipment. The company said it will also make a financial commitment of $300 million.

"This represents the second phase of a historic industry-university-government alliance for Sematech. Our Albany-based programs will cover the development and commercialization of leading-edge lithography, 3-D interconnect, metrology, and other advanced technologies. These programs will be supported by 700 researchers, scientists, engineers, and technicians on site at our International Sematech program headquarters in Albany," the company said in a statement Thursday.

"This decision by Sematech is an affirmation of the UAlbany NanoCollege's status as the most advanced research complex of its kind at any university in the world," New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer said in a statement.

For more information, visit: www.cnse.albany.edu