US university breaks ground on SiC chip lab
The University of Arkansas in the US has broken ground on a pioneering laboratory for the development and fabrication of silicon carbide (SiC) devices.
The Multi-User Silicon Carbide Research and Fabrication Facility (MUSIC) will enable companies, national laboratories and other university research groups to develop low-volume prototypes of SiC chips from lab to fab, a capability that does not presently exist elsewhere in the US.
Work at the facility is intended to bridge the gap between traditional university research and the needs of private industry and will accelerate technological advancement by providing a single location where chips can go from developmental research to prototyping, testing and fabrication.
“This fills a gap for our nation, allowing companies, national laboratories and universities around the nation to develop the low-volume prototypes that go from their labs to fab, ultimately scaling up to the high-volume manufacturing,” said Alan Mantooth, Distinguished Professor of electrical engineering and principal investigator for the MUSiC facility (above).
“We fill that gap. And there’s no other place like it in the world. This is the only place that will be able to do that with silicon carbide.”
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The 18,660 square-foot facility, located next to the National Centre for Reliable Electrical Power Transmission at the research and technology park, will address obstacles to U.S. competitiveness in the development of SiC with approximately 8,000 square feet of clean rooms for fabrication and testing.
Education and training within the facility will also accelerate workforce development, helping supply the next generation of engineers and technicians in semiconductor manufacturing, which Mantooth and other leaders have said is critical for bringing semiconductor manufacturing back to the U.S., after it was offshored in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
www.uark.edu
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