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Focus Center Research Program (FCRP)
Program Manager: Dr. Jeffrey Rogers
Overview
The Semiconductor Technology Focus Center Research Program is a collaborative effort between the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Office of the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Science & Technology (DUSD/S&T), and the Microelectronics Advanced Research Corp. (MARCO) which will establish new Focus Centers in “Materials, Structures & Devices” and in “Circuits, Systems & Software” at United States Institutions of Higher Education.
The Focus Centers will concentrate research attention and resources on a discovery research process to provide radical innovation in semiconductor technology that provide solutions to barrier problems in the path of sustaining the historical productivity growth and performance enhancement of semiconductor integrated circuits. The overall goal of this collaborative effort between the Department of Defense(DoD) and industry is to sustain the unprecedented four decades of uninterrupted performance improvement in information processing power. This steady advance in capability resulted from research and development efforts on the part of both military and industrial agencies. It has provided the DoD with an unmatched technological edge in advanced weaponry and provided the U.S. economy with the productivity enhancements that underlie the phenomenal strength of the U.S. economy. MARCO is a not-for-profit organization that will manage the Focus Center Research Program (FCRP) in microelectronics technology for its participants and other contributors. DARPA
is participating in this program as part of the DUSD(S&T)’s Government-Industry Co-Sponsorship of University Research (GICUR) initiative. By initiating and supporting this exploratory research at or beyond the horizons of the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS), and through the exploration of off-roadmap technology opportunities, the Focus Centers will concentrate research attention and resources on topics that will provide superior capabilities to the DoD and help sustain the historical productivity growth of the microelectronics industry.
Materials, Structures and Devices (MSD)
The core of the microelectronics revolution has historically been centered on a continuous decrease in transistor size with at the same time a corresponding increase in device performance that has powered the so-called “Moore’s Law”. This “Law” has been the centerpiece of the ongoing microelectronics revolution. The challenges associated with maintaining this “Law” for the next 8-12 years is dramatic, and breakthroughs and revolutionary innovations in materials, structures, and devices are needed. Scaled Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) Field-Effect Transistors (FETs) have become the principal devices driving modern integrated electronics. The characteristics and properties associated with these devices have enabled their exploitation into highly integrated digital and high performance mixed signal circuits. These properties and characteristics include input isolated from output (3 terminals), large on:off ratios, low leakage, noise margins and signal restoration, interconnections and cross-overs, and batch fabrication. However, physical and electromagnetic limitations may prevent continued scaling of these devices sometime in the next decade and a new paradigm must be developed. Research efforts that enable the present devices to scale beyond anticipated limitations and new devices and structures that avoid those issues altogether are of interest. The batch fabrication processes to realize the integration of these devices are of interest as well.
Circuits, Systems and Software (CSS)
In the context of the continuing drive for increased information technology complexity, flexibility, and performance, while reducing power dissipation and cost, advances in the technologies of circuits, systems and software will play a critical role. The challenges associated with this for the next decade are dramatic, and breakthroughs leading to improvement of key performance metrics, such as, for example, Millions of Instructions per Second (MIPS) per milliwatt, by several orders of magnitude will be required over the period. While application-specific methods can sometimes be employed to provide solutions for a given problem, there is a need for new, innovative research and development in more general methods and approaches that are scaleable, cost-effective, and result in high performance solutions.
The dimensions of the research spectrum are in the area of circuits, systems and software as well as functional configurations based on new, non-FET, devices.
Other Areas Where Difficult or Intractable Problems are Anticipated:
In addition to the areas of interest above, there are other technology areas where the historic rate of progress in performance, size, cost and reliability of assemblies of electronic circuits will, at some future date, be impeded by technical barriers with “no known solution”. The ITRS and many other reports, papers, and articles have identified a number of these, and with the exception of lithography, focus centers are established in these areas as appropriate.
Note 1: For those unfamiliar with the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) or MARCO, further general background may be obtained at their websites: www.itrs.net/ntrs/publntrs.nsf and www.fcrp.org .
The Focus Center Research Program was initiated by Daniel Radack.
**Updated content forthcoming, pending public release approval.**