Google has signed a cooperative research and development pact with the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop and produce chips that researchers can use for new nanotechnology and semiconductor devices, the Commerce Department said Tuesday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th September, 2022) Google has signed a cooperative research and development pact with the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop and produce chips that researchers can use for new nanotechnology and semiconductor devices, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.
"Google will pay the initial cost of setting up production and will subsidize the first production run," the Commerce Department said in a statement.
NIST, a unit of the department, will utilize university research partners to design circuitry for the chips to be manufactured at the Bloomington, Minnesota semiconductor foundry of SkyWater Technology.
The Commerce Department acknowledged that large companies that design and manufacture semiconductors often had ready access to these types of chips.
"But the cost can run into the hundreds of thousands of Dollars, presenting a major hurdle to innovation by university and startup researchers," it said. "By increasing production to achieve economies of scale and by implementing a legal framework that eliminates licensing fees, the collaboration is expected to bring the cost of these chips down dramatically.
The 200mm wafer to be developed under the Google-NIST collaboration is an industry standard format compatible with the manufacturing robots at most semiconductor foundries. Giving researchers access to chips in this format will allow them to prototype designs and emerging technologies that, if successful, can be integrated into production more quickly, thus speeding the transfer of technology from lab to market.
"The circuit designs will be open source, allowing academic and small business researchers to use the chips without restriction or licensing fees," the statement added.
NIST said it anticipates designing as many as 40 different chips optimized for different applications. Because the chip designs will be open source, researchers will be able to pursue new ideas without restriction and share data and device designs freely.
"By creating a new and affordable domestic supply of chips for research and development, this collaboration aims to unleash the innovative potential of researchers and startups across the nation," NIST Director and Commerce Under Secretary for Standards and Technology Laurie E. Locascio said.
Modern microelectronic devices are made of components that are stacked like layers in a cake, with the bottom layer being a semiconductor chip. The NIST/Google collaboration will make available a bottom-layer chip with specialized structures for measuring and testing the performance of the components placed on top of it, including new kinds of memory devices, nanosensors, bioelectronics and advanced devices needed for artificial intelligence and quantum computing.
Research partners contributing to the chip designs include the University of Michigan, the University of Maryland, George Washington University, Brown University and Carnegie Mellon University.
