US DOE awards $179m for fundamental chip research

The US Department of Energy (DOE) will fund three Microelectronics Science Research centres with $179 million over four years. The three centres will perform basic research in microelectronics materials, device and system design, and manufacturing science.
The Microelectronics Energy Efficiency Research centre for Advanced Technologies (MEERCAT) will advance integrated innovations across materials, devices, information-carrying, and systems’ architectures. Focusing on intelligent sensing, data bandwidth, multiplexing, and advanced computing, the centre will explore solutions that bridge sensing, edge processing, artificial intelligence, and high-performance computing. .
The Co-design and Heterogeneous Integration in Microelectronics for Extreme Environments (CHIME) centre will develop extreme environment electronics through heterogeneous integration and a fusion of a variety of materials, processes, and technologies. The centre aims to create high-performance solutions capable of working in the most challenging conditions, including extreme thermal and radiation environments.
The Extreme Lithography & Materials Innovation centre (ELMIC) aims to advance fundamental science driving the integration of new materials and processes into future microelectronic systems, focusing on key areas such as plasma-based nanofabrication, extreme UV photon sources, 2D-material systems, and extreme-scale memory.
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