Arizona ranks as a veritable powerhouse for chips, with exploding growth of mega fabs from TSMC and Intel in the Phoenix area.
Behind that expansion of actual fabrication of semiconductors used for a variety of electronics, research and partnerships with private industry have been underway for years at Arizona State University in Tempe, east of Phoenix.
ASU provides the largest engineering enrollment in the nation with 33,000 undergrads and grads and more than 50 faculty devoted to instruction or research into the semiconductor field. At the center of that chip research is MacroTechnology Works (MTW), an embedded 250,000-square foot facility that works with companies on material and process development. Inside the facility are complex state-of-the-art machines, some valued up to $10 million, used by students and companies to develop IP and industry processes that ultimately help solve the nation’s need to grow the domestic chip base.
According to industry experts, MTW and ASU are part of the reason Intel has remained in the region and is adding more growth, while TSMC is already producing chips for Apple at its fab in the region.
Meanwhile, MTW impacts companies from startups to larger outfits where much of groundbreaking research occurs. Smaller companies don’t have the resources to take potential innovations from the lab to the real world where they can prove their value. MTW helps alleviate that chokepoint, according to university officials. Companies in the MTW program include Atomera, Sara Micro Devices and Deca Technologies.
“MTW is a rare thing… and has been used for five years as a lever for strategy to engage with companies and pursue federal funding and make Arizona the future of semiconductors and, demonstrably, applied materials,” said Zachory Holman, vice dean for research and innovation at ASU, in an interview with Fierce Electronics.
The MTW operation offers a wide range of services to companies to engage with staff. Researchers can take 300mm wafers from an outside supplier and add layers or subtract layers, adding patterns with etching and other processes. One focus area is finding new materials for semiconductors that go onto the silicon or can be used to replace the silicon. Gallium Nitride (GaN), is one example. CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor) is used as a centerpiece for much of the work, with researchers studying ways, both upstream and downstream of the CMOS, to draw out power and heat. “CMOS is so critical as a backbone that I don’t see efforts to displace it,” Holman said.
Holman knows his chips, and more, and has been a professor and lately a vice dean at ASU for a dozen years, while also co-founding no fewer than three startups—Swift Coat, SunFlex Solar and Beyond Silicon. He got his PhD in mechanical engineering from the University of Minnesota, writing his thesis on Germanium nanocrystal solar cells. If anything, his career shows how engineering can be cross-disciplinary.
His research has influenced many students including an ASU graduate who now works at Atomera after spending two summers there as an intern. Atomera in turn has collaborated with ASU and has office space and a lab at MTW.
Atomera's work at ASU's MTW
Atomera, based in Los Gatos, CA, was founded in 2001 as Mears Technologies, then completed an IPO in 2016, and trades on Nasdaq under ticker ATOM. After several years of research, the company is working with leading semiconductor companies like STMicroelectronics on its trademarked Mears Silicon Technology, designed to extend the life of fabs and aid chip designers improve performance and power efficiency. Analysts describe MST as a thin film of reengineered silicon that can be applied as a transistor channel enhancement to CMOS-type transistors.
Pointing to MTW’s advanced semiconductor clean room for development work, Atomera CEO Scott Bibaud told Fierce via email: “It is almost impossible for a small company like Atomera to access this type of facility anywhere else in the US or even the world to develop and test our advanced transistor enhancement technology. High volume production facilities are not very conducive to the type of R&D work we do, which involves many different setups and short wafer runs with a variety of process conditions, materials, gasses, and tools etc. ASU needs to maintain a high quality, clean operating environment under these changing conditions, which is a big challenge – but they do it very well.”
ASU has fostered an ecosystem that brings R&D and commercial partners together to facilitate “continuous innovation” in advanced materials and metrology R&D, he said. The work brings students and commercial grade material suppliers together. “They make it easy for our team to set up in the facility, collaborate and deliver the regular material breakthroughs needed by the semiconductor industry.”
R&D and the fate of CHIPS Act funding
Like others in the semiconductor industry, Holman has been following how funds will be dispersed in the $52 billion US CHIPS and Science Act, now facing scrutiny by the Trump administration. In February, President Trump suggested the remaining funds be used for reducing the federal debt. Out of the $52 billion, about $11 billion was designated for R&D, including work like what MTW provides. Only $5 billion of the total grants in the Act has been dispersed by the US Treasury for companies and researchers, leaving it unclear how the remainder will be distributed. One collaborator at MTW is Deca, which was granted $100 million from the CHIPS Act funds.
“I don’t have a crystal ball” regarding the fate of the CHIPS Act, Holman said. “We’re not sure what the future is right now and that’s also true of the business community.” He noted that the initial steps toward the CHIPS Act happened during the first Trump administration with President Biden signing the final bill in 2022 following bi-partisan support in Congress.
The CHIPS Act is “important to national security and economy…and all sorts of things with the supply chain of chips,” Holman added. “We’re focused on delivering value with taxpayer money. Historically, R&D has been a fantastic economic driver with amazing ROI and we want to continue that legacy. Doing research in collaboration with companies provides a real pathway for students. All companies in this industry are quite confident we are critical to the success of this country…It’s up to a lot of us to show the value of science and engineering.”