UCLA CHIPS and SEMI Receive NIST Grant to Develop Heterogeneous Integration Roadmap

By Chad Cox

Production Editor

Embedded Computing Design

May 27, 2022

News

SEMI and the UCLA Center for Heterogeneous Integration and Performance Scaling (UCLA CHIPS) revealed that they have won a $300,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to produce a roadmap for advancing heterogeneous integration and advanced packaging technologies in the United States.

 

According to the parties involved, “the roadmap will build upon the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) and Heterogeneous Integration Roadmap (HIR) by translating the HIR into a blueprint that defines requirements for rolling out the roadmap in U.S. semiconductor factories. The grant, one of the first awarded by NIST's Advanced Manufacturing Technology Roadmap Program (MfgTech), will fund the project for 18 months.”

SEMI and UCLA CHIPS will create a technology-neutral communications platform for partners throughout the supply chain, academics, and industry experts. SEMI will outline a procedure for prioritizing and directing vital areas of the HIR to standardization. UCLA will manage academically themed clinics and panels to make certain the roadmaps are scalable and extendible as applications and processes as new technology emerges.

“While the Heterogeneous Integration Roadmap is application-focused, our work will translate this roadmap into a manufacturing infrastructure blueprint that starts at the basic materials used in advanced packaging and breaks down integrated processes into individual unit processes,” said Dr. Subramanian Iyer, distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering and director of UCLA CHIPS, which is housed at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering. “Some of them will diverge from traditional silicon processes and include custom manufacturing tools and processes that address dies, wafers and panels. Our roadmap will also be customizable to work with many application-dependent variables."

“SEMI and UCLA CHIPS look forward to leveraging our expertise in semiconductor and packaging roadmaps – from upstream innovations to downstream manufacturing infrastructure – to develop the HIR and take the next step toward factory implementation,” said Dr. Melissa Grupen-Shemansky, SEMI CTO and Vice President of SEMI Technology Communities. “SEMI will also turn to its workforce development strategies to offer heterogeneous integration technology training at all levels of education to meet the growing need for advanced packaging talent in the U.S.” 

Chad Cox. Production Editor, Embedded Computing Design, has responsibilities that include handling the news cycle, newsletters, social media, and advertising. Chad graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a B.A. in Cultural and Analytical Literature.

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