Sematech
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| Joint venture | |
| Industry | Semiconductor, Manufacturing |
| Genre | Consortium |
| Founded | 1987 |
| Headquarters | Albany New York, United States |
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Key people
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Ronald Goldblatt, President and CEO |
| Website | www |
SEMATECH (from Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology) is a not-for-profit consortium that performs research and development to advance chip manufacturing. SEMATECH has broad engagement with various sectors of the R&D community, including chipmakers, equipment and material suppliers, universities, research institutes, and government partners. The group is funded by member dues.
SEMATECH was conceived in 1986, formed in 1987, and began operating in Austin, Texas [3] in 1988 as a partnership between the United States government and 14 U.S.-based semiconductor manufacturers to solve common manufacturing problems and regain competitiveness for the U.S. semiconductor industry that had been surpassed by Japanese industry in the mid-1980s. SEMATECH was funded over five years by public subsidies coming from the U.S. Department of Defense via the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for a total of $500 million.
Following a determination by SEMATECH Board of Directors to eliminate matching funds from the U.S. government after 1996, the organization's focus shifted from the U.S. semiconductor industry to the larger international semiconductor industry, abandoning the initial U.S. government-initiative. Its members represent about half of the worldwide chip market.
SEMATECH conducts research on the technical challenges and costs associated with developing new materials, processes, and equipment for semiconductor manufacturing. Advanced technology programs focus on EUV lithography including photomask blank and photoresist development, materials and emerging technologies for device structures, metrology, manufacturing, and environment and safety issues.
In January 2003 SEMATECH and the University at Albany – State University of New York – established a major partnership to commercialize advanced semiconductor, nanotechnology and other emerging technologies.
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Wikipedia