SCIENCE

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC -- The Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC), the chip industry's long-term research consortium, awarded more than $7.9 million in university research contracts during the second quarter of 2001. A total of 69 research projects at 34 universities received new or additional SRC funding in the second quarter. The largest contract was for $650,000 and was awarded to Dr. Robert Brayton and his colleagues of the University of California-Berkeley for his research in the design of large, complex systems on a single chip. Seven universities received new contracts, totaling $750,000, resulting from a solicitation in logic and physical design tools research. The recipients were the University of California (Berkeley, Los Angeles and San Diego), the University of Illinois-Chicago, the University of Michigan, Carnegie Mellon University and Oregon State University. "The competition from our logic and physical design solicitation is resulting in leading-edge research into the increasingly important design and analysis of mixed-signal systems-on-chip, interconnect representation and simulation, combined logical/physical synthesis and tools with higher-level awareness of electrical and manufacturing characteristics," said Ralph Cavin, vice president of research operations at the SRC. In other second-quarter initiatives, Dr. James Plummer of Stanford University was awarded $400,000 for research on the theory and methods of introducing impurities (dopants) into transistors to enhance their performance in the sub-100nm regime. Other second-quarter SRC contracts went to the following universities: Arizona, California-Davis, California-Irvine, California-Los Angeles, California-San Diego, California-Santa Clara, Carnegie Mellon, Colorado, Georgia Institute of Technology, Hawaii, Florida, Illinois-Urbana Champaign, Maryland, Michigan, MIT, North Texas, Ohio State, Oregon State, Pennsylvania, Penn State, Princeton, Rutgers, Southern California, SUNY-Binghamton, Texas-Arlington, Texas-Austin, Texas-Dallas, Toronto, Utah, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Washington and Wisconsin. "SRC's technical contributions will be greatly advanced by Dr. Brayton's state-of-the-art work design for large, complex systems on a single chip, and by Dr. Plummer's award for device-doping technology-modeling and characterization of sub-100 nm devices," said Cavin. "Both researchers are clearly at the forefront of their respective fields." SRC, based in Research Triangle Park, N.C., with an office in San Jose, Calif., is the largest continuous industry-driven university research program in the U.S. Currently, the SRC sponsors research conducted at 67 universities in the U.S. and Canada. Since 1982, SRC has funded more than $460 million in long-term semiconductor research contracts on behalf of its member companies. For further information visit www.src.org