Universities’ alliance set to boost microelectronics research

Two of Indiana’s top research universities are partaking in a four-way research alliance that organizers have described as an unprecedented agreement that allows members to work on microelectronics projects using one another’s facilities and resources.

Purdue University and the University of Notre Dame joined the University of Michigan and the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana last year to create the R1 Nucleus.

Over the past year, microelectronics leaders at the schools have established a framework so researchers at each university can seamlessly move among facilities to access equipment and resources unavailable at their own institutions.

“The universities can’t have everything for everything,” said Brett Hamilton, the Applied Research Institute’s senior vice president of microelectronics. The alliance means a researcher might start a project or research at Purdue, for example, then send it to Michigan, which has the equipment needed to finish the job.

R1 Nucleus is part of the Silicon Crossroads Microelectronics Commons Hub, a state-supported effort to bring together stakeholders in the semiconductor industry to spur innovation through collaboration. The Bloomington-based Applied Research Institute, or ARI, oversees the hub and manages federal funding.

The hub—one of eight selected by the U.S. Department of Defense—is a CHIPS and Science Act initiative to fund the innovation, research and manufacturing needed to ensure the United States can supply its own defense equipment. (CHIPS stands for Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors.)

Brooke Pyne, ARI’s hub lead and executive vice president of innovation and strategy, said the R1 Nucleus alliance is unique.

“We’ve kind of blazed a trail here to say we want to do this for one of our peer institutions and have a blanket agreement,” said Tracy Hudson, managing director of Purdue’s Birck Nanotechnology Center. “I hope this is an example of how we can partner in the future.”

The universities’ researchers already work at one another’s labs occasionally, but the arrangements typically require a contract. Hamilton said those discussions can get bogged down in questions about liability and other legalities.

R1 Nucleus makes a contract unnecessary and allows for a broad swath of microelectronics research across campuses.

This agreement “sounds simple, but from a legal point of view, it was actually a pretty big deal,” Hamilton said. “A lot of other people have tried and failed to actually do something like that.”

After the Crossroads hub was selected for funding in September 2023, Pyne said, it became an early priority to establish a consortium of the most prominent research institutions within its reach, to enable more intense collaboration.

“When you really look at the kind of horsepower that this brings to bear on supporting the microelectronics and semiconductor research environment, we’re really looking for good things to happen out of that,” said Derek Lake, Notre Dame’s associate director of nanoscience and technology.

Lake said the alliance creates a framework that ensures that researchers can get the tools they need and allows for faculty and staff to share best practices.

And Hudson said the group is exploring whether the alliance can be expanded to allow students to engage with other universities through tours, showcases or engagement events.

“It’s been really instrumental in getting these four universities in communication with each other and working together at a level that we’ve not done in the past,” she said. “It’s about the universities working together and not just on an individual project, but how do we work together as a team to leverage all of our expertise and capabilities?”

ARI has made lab and equipment investments at each of the institutions. But those involved said that microelectronics production is expansive and expensive, and that industry niches require different types of microchips or advanced microchip packaging, different types of equipment and specialized personnel.

“We all have different research areas where we’re stronger,” Lake said. “It’s all those together that really helps to make this a stronger group.”

The collaboration also increases the potential for federal funding and research opportunities.

Pyne said ARI has developed a pipeline of projects that it matches to federal funding opportunities for alliance members. Across its members, she said, the hub has 178 potential projects in its portfolio, each designed to solve a Department of Defense need.

Two of those research projects are ongoing at Purdue and Notre Dame, which received significant federal funding in the latest CHIPS Act project round. Overall, the hub was awarded funding for five of the 15 member projects it submitted in a first round of opportunities.

The funding is for just the first year of research—and future funding could be in doubt as President Donald Trump attempts to freeze all grants and other program funding. But ARI and university officials hope that as the research teams demonstrate merit, they will receive more financial support for further study. For example, under CHIPS Act terms, if Purdue’s project meets its benchmarks, it could receive up to $29 million over four years.

Congress passed the CHIPS Act and other funding programs in an effort to push more new technologies from the lab to commercialization and reduce U.S. dependence on technology from China and other foreign countries.

The projects developed by ARI and the universities aim to commercialize technology that has demonstrated a proof of concept, Hamilton said. The money is being used to turn the research into a prototype product. Proposals had to include a commercial partner willing to take on the project after development.

Pyne said ARI officials aren’t worried about Trump’s campaign talk about rolling back the CHIPS Act. Next year, she said, ARI plans to have more member programming, engagement opportunities and project funding avenues.

“We’re putting our foot on the gas even more for 2025,” she said. “There’s really no shift in approach for us at all. We’re not concerned.”•