Applied Research Institute (ARI) was recently awarded four projects through the Silicon Crossroads Microelectronics Commons (SCMC) Hub marking a significant investment across the Midwest region.
The four projects span across half of all the technical areas supported under the Microelectronics Commons program (5G/6G, Artificial Intelligence/Hardware, Commercial Leap Ahead, Electronic Warfare, Quantum, and Secure Edge/IoT Computing) and include:
The subsequent awards highlight a diverse and adept ecosystem within SCMC. This embodies the inherent essence of SCMC and its value proposition to its members – the ability to identify and align disparate companies, capabilities and expertise from all over the region to deliver a holistic and cohesive solution.
“Our vision for SCMC is to be a gravitational center where members can come to find collaborators, expertise, and other opportunities they may align with,” said Brooke Pyne, EVP of Innovation and Strategy and Hub Lead. “Our members are the driving forces behind our ecosystem, propelling us forward and shaping the future of innovation.”
In addition to the unique member community, SCMC differentiated itself by establishing the R1 Nucleus (R1N) and acquiring unique capabilities at the university facilities. The R1N established a first-of-its-kind collaboration between four regional universities: Purdue University, University of Notre Dame, University of Michigan and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Within the R1N community, this collaboration aligned over 56,000 sq. ft. of combined cleanroom space to support hub member research and development efforts. Equipment supplied by SCMC include first-in-the-nation commercially accessible capabilities, such as a high-frequency RF test bed (up to 220 GHz), a low-temperature impulse current bonding system and an advanced sub-micron pick-and-place bonding system.
To further access to these facilities and capabilities, SCMC facilitated a multi-institution reciprocal use agreement which allows multiple users from a company or organization to access each facility without the need for user/facility agreements at each separate institution or for each user.
“The long-term impact of this is to provide our members with rapid access to the capabilities they need as efficiently as possible,” said Brett Hamilton, SVP of Microelectronics. “Not only are we focused on our member community, the work we do is critical for microelectronics advancements and national security.”
SCMC is one of eight hubs in the nation led by ARI and is comprised of an innovation ecosystem of diverse partners driven to accelerate expansion of America’s microelectronics base by leveraging strong collaborative practices that strategically support innovation, workforce development and infrastructure needs to achieve domestic microelectronics excellence.
