SEMICONDUCTORS @ PURDUE

Purdue University is home to large scale, impactful, interdisciplinary research and learning. A strong, critical mass of researchers sets Purdue apart by spanning the full stack of semiconductors R&D from materials and devices, to circuits, systems, architecture, and advanced packaging integration. Novel information processing architectures such as neuromorphic computing, compute-in memory, and probabilistic computing are core strengths, and additional strengths in new memory technologies and reliability are directly relevant to the challenges of DRAM and NAND scaling. Purdue currently leads three Semiconductor Research Corporation funded multi-university research programs and recently launched the Center for Secure Microelectronics Ecosystems. Strong connections like these to industry, DoD, NIST, and NSF support one of the nation’s largest semiconductors research programs.

Purdue’s reputation as R&D trailblazer is matched by its leadership in workforce development. We offer a full suite of degrees and credential options for semiconductors training, ranging from traditional on-campus courses to a new set of degrees, competitive internships, innovative Learning While Working programs, flexible online courses, and virtual laboratories. Purdue leads the Scalable Asymmetric Lifecycle Engagement (SCALE), a five-year, DoD-sponsored national coalition of 17 universities aimed at addressing the urgent need to develop a highly skilled U.S. microelectronics workforce to bolster national security. SCALE is being managed in partnership with the Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division (NSWC- Crane) as a nationally coordinated network of government, industry and university partners.

Purdue is an agile, collaborative university with an interwoven industry, academic, and social ecosystem. Bringing more microelectronics manufacturing to Indiana is a high priority, and Purdue is working with the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) on both state and federally funded programs targeted at semiconductor manufacturing. The Purdue Research Foundation (PRF) supports Purdue’s land-grant mission to improve the world through its technologies and graduates. PRF moves ideas to the marketplace, patents and commercializes technologies, protects Purdue's intellectual property, and provides connections and placemaking opportunities for industry.  

Just over the summer, Purdue announced a partnership with SkyWater Technologies to build a $1.8B fab in West Lafayette, IN, and another partnership with MediaTek, who is building the company's first semiconductor chip design center in the Midwest, to be housed on Purdue's campus. This is just the beginning of what we envision to be a strong semiconductor ecosystem. We have the expertise, leadership, and resources to advance the semiconductors industry and contribute to the U.S. microelectronics preeminence.  

"Semiconductors was in the DNA of Purdue and Indiana: MOSFET was invented in 1959 by a Boilermaker engineer, Mohamed Atalla, and the father of Silicon Valley, Fred Terman, was a Hoosier. Today, the university and the state are ready to become one of the top five destinations for semiconductors industry and sources of semiconductors talent in the U.S. With over 30 leading faculty across multiple schools, Purdue is launching the nation’s first comprehensive suite of degrees devoted to semiconductors, leading DoD SCALE workforce consortium three of the nine SRC funded JUMP and nCORE centers, pioneering key research areas, and working with IEDC, Crane and state-wide partners to welcome leading companies throughout the semiconductors supply chain."