SIA ISSUE BACKGROUNDERS

Focus Center Research Program (FCRP)
Government/Industry Co-sponsorship of University Research (GICUR)
Fiscal Year 2006 Defense Department Budget for PE0601111D8Z

Maintaining U.S. Leadership: In 1997, the Department of Defense, through the Director of Defense Research & Engineering, and the U.S. semiconductor and supplier industries entered into an agreement to launch the Focus Center Research Program (FCRP).

This jointly funded program supports university research to discover solutions to the problems identified in the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) that must be overcome for continued semiconductor technology advancement.

The Purpose: The program focuses on mid- to long-term (8 to 12-year time horizon), research on ITRS challenges of greatest interest to DOD and the industry to prevent against a loss of national leadership in an industry vital to economic prosperity and in a technology so critical to U.S. national defense, security and intelligence.

Over the next decade, this program will double the number of industry-funded Ph.D. graduates in electrical engineering and computer science, maintain U.S. global leadership in a manufacturing industry with over 225,000 high-paying domestic jobs, and help ensure that the US semiconductor leadership.

Focusing on the Need: FCRP needs $20 million in Defense Department funding for the Focus Center Research Program (FCRP) in Fiscal Year 2006 to match $20 million provided by industry to continue this program's important work.

The FCRP has a separate line item in DDR&E's budget (Government/Industry Consortia for University Research (GICUR), but is administered by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). DARPA also provides funding. The current phase of the program has five university centers, all of which entered three-year contracts in September 2003 as a result of a joint DOD-industry solicitation. Of the proposals funded, 33 universities received funding for 191 research professors and their 366 graduate students.

Corporate Partners Participating in the Program:

Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) Members Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Analog Devices Cypress Semiconductor Freescale (formerly Motorola) LSI Logic Micron Technology Intel IBM Texas Instruments Xilinx

Semiconductor Equipment and Materials Industry (SEMI) Members Air Products Applied Materials Cadence Systems KLA-Tencor Synopsys Teradyne Novellus These companies work closely with the Department of Defense and U.S. university partners to ensure that we remain leaders in this technology today as well as long into the future.

Since the program's inception, industry will have contributed more than $99 million to the program, while the Department of Defense will have provided over $57 million in the same period. DOD has a seat on the FCRP Governing Council, and is a full partner in crafting the FCRP's research agenda and budgets.

Benefiting the Greater Good: Our armed forces rely on semiconductors for communications, navigation, and weaponry. These systems depend on continued advances in semiconductor research. The Focus Center program has generated over 1,447 published papers and 116 patent disclosures related to overcoming major technical challenges in the field.

The program is effective. The work of the Focus Centers has already extracted significant research results that are being incorporated into other DARPA programs, including application specific integrated circuits, chip-to-chip optical interconnect, 3D integration, new structures and materials for CMOS scaling, efficient system design methodology, chip-level power reduction, removal of thermal management roadblocks, and macroelectronics.

The industry match underscores the value of the program. Few basic research programs are fully matched by industry resources. This is critical research with potential high pay offs for the nation's economic and national security.

Because the research is addressing real problems identified in the ITRS - a roadmap which experts from industry and government help develop - there are clear objectives to be accomplished. In tight budget times, this research efficiency is important.

Keeping the Program on Track: We are asking for your help in providing a $20 million appropriation in Fiscal Year 2006 for GICUR/FCRP to match the commitment of the industry and grow a program to address the research gap in semiconductor research in the United States. We will continue to engage the Department of Defense to achieve the FCRP's goal to sustain the U.S. industry's leadership in semiconductor design and manufacturing and the DOD's need for battlefield information dominance.

Focus Center Research Program - Participating Colleges and Universities

• University Participants	Gigascale Silicon Research Center	Interconnections for Hyperintegration Center	Focus Center on Materials, Structures, and Devices	Center for Circuits & Systems Solutions	Functional Engineered Nano-Architectonics
  Arizona State University			X
  California Institute of Technology	X		X		X
  Carnegie Mellon University	X	X		X
  Columbia University				X
  Cornell University		X	X	X
  Georgia Institute of Technology	X	X		X
  Massachusetts Institute of Technology	X	X	X	X	X
  New York State University					X
  North Carolina State University		X	X		X
  Pennsylvania State University	X		X
  Princeton University	X		X
  Purdue University	X		X
  Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute		X
  Stanford University	X	X	X	X
  SUNY - Albany		X	X
  SUNY - Stony Brook					X
  Texas A&M				X
  Univ. of California, Berkeley	X	X	X	X	X
  Univ. of California, Davis		X
  Univ. of California, Los Angeles	X		X	X	X
  Univ. of Californa, Riverside					X
  Univ. of Califorina, San Diego	X			X
  Univ. of California, Santa Barbara	X	X	X		X
  Univ. of Colorado	X
  University of Central Florida		X
  University of Florida			X	X
  Univ. of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign	X			X
  University of Michigan	X
  University of Minnesota					X
  University of Southern California					X
  University of Texas at Austin	X	X	X
  University of Virginia			X
  University of Washington				X

  
  Lead Focus Center