MICROELECTRONIC SYSTEMS NEWS



FILENUMBER: 9707
BEGIN_KEYWORDS
MARCO
END_KEYWORDS
DATE: November 1997
TITLE: MARCO WHITE PAPERS DUE



 MARCO WHITE PAPERS DUE

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Pre-Proposal White Papers Due:  12/3/Wednesday, 1997

 WWW: MARCO 

The Microelectronics Advanced Research Corporation (MARCO) is a
not-for-profit research management organization that funds and operates a
number of microelectronics technology oriented, university-based research
centers. MARCO is a wholly owned, but separately managed, subsidiary of the
Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC). The SRC is a research management
consortium that was established in 1982 as the university research arm of
the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). MARCO has its own management
personnel but uses existing support and infrastructure services provided by
the SRC.

MARCO is chartered with the establishment and management of a new,
university-based Focus Center Research Program (FCRP). The FCRP is a new
initiative to expand pre-competitive cooperative long-range applied
microelectronics research at U.S. universities. This initiative was launched
by the SIA in cooperation with members of the U.S. semiconductor equipment,
materials, software and services industry, and the U.S. Department of
Defense (DoD). A Governing Council, consisting of representatives from all
participating organizations, provides oversight of the FCRP.


The Focus Center concept: "A consortium created through a series of bilateral contracts."

The microelectronics industry relies heavily upon continuing advancements in
semiconductor integrated circuit design and manufacturing technologies. As
the industry strives to maintain its historic record of productivity
advances, the cost and complexity of the underlying research and development
continues to escalate dramatically. To meet this growing challenge,
additional emphasis on long range research is required. The creation of the
FCRP is a natural extension of the historic strong relationship between the
industry and the U.S. research university community.

The FCRP is structured to deal with industry needs that have been identified
in the National Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (NTRS) and can be
effectively addressed by the research university system; i.e. long range
innovative applied research. As such, the envisioned Centers will:

        o concentrate attention and resources on those areas of
          microelectronics research that must be addressed to maintain the
          historic productivity growth curve of the industry,
        o strengthen the university research infrastructure and expand its
          capabilities in silicon related research,
        o achieve critical mass through relatively large blocks of funding
          together with the active participation of industrial visiting
          scientists, and
        o provide an optimal balance of creative freedom and targeted
          objectives.

Individual Focus Centers will be "virtual (or distributed) centers" in that
they will typically consist of a multiple universities structure. This will
allow for tapping the best expertise at a number of institutions in order to
build the greatest overall capability in a particular technology area. See
the diagram below for a graphical representation of the Focus Centers.

Each Center will be managed by a full-time university Center Director with
the guidance of the MARCO staff, and will address one of the major
technology focus areas of the NTRS. Although the NTRS-identified needs
provide a meaningful guideline for the research objectives, a measurable
percentage (~20%) of the effort may encompass activities not envisioned by
the Roadmap. See the FCRP Background and General Program Overview page for
more details of the research program.

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