The Biden Administration is investing approximately $825 million to establish a cutting-edge national semiconductor R&D hub in upstate New York, leveraging the existing government-backed NanoTech Complex.
Situated in Albany, NY, the new R&D center will house the groundbreaking Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) Accelerator initiative, aimed at propelling advanced lithography research and implementation across the United States.
EUV Lithography plays a pivotal role in producing smaller, faster, and more efficient integrated circuits and microchips by imprinting intricate patterns onto semiconductor silicon wafers that form the backbone of all electronic devices.
As technology continues to challenge Moore’s Law boundaries, EUV lithography emerges as a crucial tool for mass-producing transistors beyond 7 nanometers (nm), a feat previously deemed unattainable. To put it into perspective, a human hair is about 80,000nm to 100,000nm thick while a DNA molecule measures around 2.5nm.
The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) underscores that access to EUV lithography R&D is vital for achieving three key objectives: maintaining US technology supremacy, streamlining prototyping timelines and costs, and nurturing a sustainable semiconductor workforce ecosystem.
This new state-of-the-art R&D facility signifies an important step towards “ensuring America’s continued global leadership in innovation and semiconductor research,” as stated by Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.
2024-11-13 23:15:04
Source from www.computerworld.com