By Mary Fiess
Serge Oktyabrsky, like a number of his colleagues at the University�s Center for Advanced Thin Film Technology (CAT), has literally traveled the globe, working as a scientist in his native Russia and in the U.S.
But he says that all his experiences along his path to the University have made one thing clear: there is no place in the world like the CAT.
Other universities, he notes, do high-quality research. And many reach out to businesses and their communities. But nowhere has he seen the range, energy and vision of the scientists, staff and students who are shaping the CAT into a one-of-a-kind academic center.
�I have worked at universities where faculty are very involved in high-tech research in the area of microelectronics, and they do good work. But here we actually have on staff people who are out every day talking to businesses, listening to what they need, telling them what we offer, encouraging them to work with us,� says Oktyabrsky, now a senior research scientist at the CAT.
And when businesses come to the CAT, they can expect a responsiveness geared to a company�s time line and needs.
�When one company needed advice right way, that was my �weekend project,�� says Bai Xu, another senior scientist committed to the CAT�s mission of providing both long-range innovations and short-range technical solutions.
�This team is truly a SWAT team,� quips CAT Director Alain Kaloyeros.
�Our goal,� says Kaloyeros, �is to become a �one-stop-shop� where anyone anywhere in the world can come to tap our expertise in microelectronics-based information technologies. And at the same time, we want to create world-class academic programs that support and enhance the University�s mission within its overarching goal of societal responsibility and distinctive competitiveness.�
The CAT, founded in 1993 as a resource for the microelectronics industry, has already made significant strides toward those ambitious goals. It has impressive facilities valued at more than $75 million, with the only 200mm wafer processing facility and more than 100 U.S. and worldwide corporate partners. Its interdisciplinary research team includes physicists, chemists, materials scientists, biologists and computer scientists with broad expertise in microelectronics, nanosystems, optoelectronics, bioelectronics, and telecommunications. CAT graduate students, trained in its technologically sophisticated environment, generally have high-tech jobs lined up even before they graduate.
But in the fast-paced world of high-tech science, the CAT must continue to strategically build its infrastructure and team to achieve its long-term goals, says Kaloyeros.
�We are being driven by paradigm shifts in both high-tech science and in the way universities do business. High-tech research and development has become so expensive that industry is increasingly depending on universities for both specialized facilities and critical intellectual resources. And states and communities are increasingly counting on their universities to spur economic growth,� he says.
Just last month, state leaders promised to invest another $15 million in the expansion of the Center for Environmental Sciences and Technology Development, headquarters for the CAT, to create a state-of-the-art facility for developing prototypes for the next generation of computer chips on the 300mm, or 12-inch, wafer platform, and to create more incubator space for high-tech businesses. This recent announcement brings the total funding available for the facility to date to $28 million.
Right now, the CAT has a pilot prototyping facility for the current industry standard in computer chip design — the 200mm, or 8-inch, wafer. The facility is critical to the research efforts of dozens of companies, big and small, and it offers students state-of-the-art training opportunities. In addition, it provides a unique environment, unparalleled at any other university in the world, for development and integration of a variety of �systems on a chip,� including biochips, environmental sensors, and nanosystems.
In its simplest terms, a conventional wafer consists of a silicon substrate on which are deposited thin films or metal layers. At the prototyping facility, companies can test new materials and/or processes for depositing layers.
�It would be prohibitively expensive for a company to shut down its manufacturing line to test a new process. Instead, a company can come here and either simply use our equipment or partner with us to test new approaches,� says Eric Eisenbraun, who was a doctoral student of Kaloyeros and is now a senior research scientist with expertise in advanced materials processing.
In addition, the CAT�s prototyping facility offers companies ways to develop integrated solutions. Equipment manufacturers and chip manufacturers can work hand-in-hand to both develop new technologies and make existing technologies practical.
Recognized nationally as a resource for the semiconductor industry, the CAT was key to the University�s designation in October 1998 as the headquarters of Focus Center-New York for Gigascale Interconnects. This $45-million initiative is funded by the semiconductor industry and the state and federal governments to develop the science and technology for the interconnects in the next generation of computer chips.
When Kaloyeros and others at the CAT talk about the Focus Center, they often cite it as an example of the �blue sky� research underway, the critical basic research that might not have practical applications for ten or 15 years. And Lamar Hill, the CAT�s director of business development, calls it a �quality label.�
But at the same time all make clear that the Focus Center is just one important part of a far broader strategy to expand the range of what the CAT does.
�When I first arrived, our main focus was microelectronics,� says James Castracane, who became the CAT�s director of technology in June 1998. �But we are strategically building our team of scientists to broaden our technical base and develop strengths in such important emerging areas as optoelectronics, bioelectronics and MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical systems) technology.�
�The same manufacturing techniques used to deposit and etch layers on a silicon substrate to make a computer chip can be applied to a wide range of other applications ranging from flat-panel displays to fuel cells, nanostructures, optical devices, sensors and new communications devices,� says Castracane.
Both Castracane and Xu were recruited by Kaloyeros for their expertise in MEMS technology, which Xu describes as the marriage between traditional microelectronics and mechanical systems to realize a physical device such as a sensor.
�We have a number of projects under way to develop new kinds of micro- and nano-scale sensors for biotechnology, devices that might be used in the future to quickly analyze blood, diagnose disease or serve as a biological/chemical laboratory on a chip. This cross-disciplinary technology development is the foundation of our work in nano/micro system research,� says Castracane.
Other senior scientists at the CAT who are broadening its technology base are Harry Efstathiadis, with expertise in advanced dielectric materials that is important in such applications as advanced transistor technologies and flat panel display, and Timothy Stoner, who is developing new thin film technologies for fuel cells and advanced plating techniques for computer chip interconnects.
Further strengthening the CAT's �skill set� — as Kaloyeros describes it — are scientists whose primary appointments are in University departments but who work closely with CAT researchers, as well as with undergraduates and graduate students involved in CAT research.
Andrea Mayer, a new assistant professor in the University�s Department of Chemistry, has research experience with composite materials that is useful in sensor technologies. Robert Geer, an assistant professor of physics, add his experience in advanced materials integration and processing.
Hassaram Bakhru, chair of the Department of Physics, employs the University�s particle accelerator for both the analysis and modification of advanced materials used in CAT research. Meng Bing Huang, an assistant professor of physics, has wide scientific know-how in new optoelectronics and wireless technologies.
Similarly, John Welch, chair of the Department of Chemistry, and Paul Toscano, an associate professor of chemistry, add expertise that bridges synthetic chemistry and materials chemistry.
The �skill set� also includes other critical services to help a company move from an initial idea to commercialization of a product. Michael Fancher, director of economic outreach, and Lamar Hill, help develop business plans and seek funding sources. Most recently, the CAT teamed up with six companies to submit funding proposals to the Advanced Technology Program of the National Institute for Science and Technology (NIST).
All the talent, research infrastructure and business partnerships are creating the kind of critical mass, says Kaloyeros, that helped spawn high-tech industry hubs in places like Silicon Valley and the Research Triangle in North Carolina.
�Through significant state investments, our state leaders, Governor Pataki, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, have demonstrated their commitment to making New York State a high-tech center. We at the CAT are extremely privileged to have such farsighted state leadership, and highly fortunate for President Hitchcock�s pioneering vision, boundless energy, and long-term commitments to the University, region, and state.�
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