New York State, International SEMATECH and UAlbany Close Deal
New York State, the University at Albany, and International SEMATECH (ISMT) have completed negotiations on a joint five-year program to accelerate the development of next-generation lithography for the computer chips of the future.

Under the terms of the contract, ISMT will conduct a program in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography infrastructure focused on advanced work in three areas -- mask blanks, resist, and EUV extensions -- at UAlbany’s new state-of-the-art 300-mm wafer cleanroom complex. The program is designated as International SEMATECH North.

New York Governor George Pataki, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver jointly announced the finalization of the contract and then led the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the University’s new cleanroom complex on January 28.

“I am proud to say that the contract for International SEMATECH North is signed, sealed, and delivered,” Pataki said. “Years from now, we will look back on today as an important milestone in New York’s transformation into a worldwide powerhouse in high-tech and biotech research, job creation, and economic growth.”

“The fact that International SEMA-TECH could have located anywhere in the world, but chose to come to the Capital Region, is testament to everything we have done to make New York more economically competitive and create new high-tech jobs,” said Bruno.

“This private-public partnership between SEMATECH and the University at Albany is crucial to our state’s transformation into ‘the place’ where high-paying, high-tech industries want to be,” said Silver.

“I am enormously grateful to Governor Pataki and the SUNY Albany team for bringing International SEMA-TECH to the University at Albany campus,” said SUNY Chancellor Robert King in a news release. “This decision well reflects the high quality of the research conducted at the University at Albany and throughout the State University of New York.”

“This is a great day for our members and for the semiconductor industry,” stated Bob Helms, ISMT president and chief executive office, in a news release. “By combining talent and resources and maximizing the leverage of industry, university, and state funds, International SEMATECH and UAlbany are tackling a major technical challenge facing the industry -- the development of a new infrastructure to support EUV lithography. And we’re funded for success, thanks to the commitments provided by Governor Pataki and the State of New York.”

UAlbany has been extremely successful in garnering R&D funding through various national, industry, and state initiatives to establish world-class research and development programs. With the construction of two new 300-mm cleanroom facilities, UAlbany is the centerpiece of Pataki’s $1 billion initiative to bring high-tech consortia, companies, and jobs to New York.

University at Albany President Karen R. Hitchcock said, “We are delighted with the Governor’s announcement of the agreement to establish International SEMATECH North at the University at Albany. It is a great testimony to the unique and enabling array of research, development, and prototyping capabilities of the University’s Center for Excellence in Nanoelectronics. We are extremely grateful to the state and International SEMATECH for their unprecedented investment in our high- technology programs. These investments would not have been possible without the proactive leadership that Governor Pataki, Majority Leader Bruno and Speaker Silver continue to provide in support of universities and high-tech industry in New York.”

According to Kevin Kemp, EUV program manager for ISMT, the EUV infrastructure program to be conducted at UAlbany will complement and expand on the work being done at ISMT’s headquarters in Austin, Texas. “During the recent International Symposium on Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography, hosted by ISMT, participants identified 10 critical EUV issues facing the industry over the next year,” said Kemp. “ISMT will be addressing those issues to help our members and the industry bring EUV lithography to commercialization. Our goal is to have the needed EUV infrastructure in place and ready for introduction in 2007.”

In addition to EUV, ISMT also conducts programs in 157-nm lithography, mask cost and availability, high-k/gate stack, low-k dielectrics, and manufacturing effectiveness.

The UAlbany/ISMT agreement stipulates that ISMT will provide technical program definition, execution, management, and staffing, while UAlbany will provide facilities, staffing, and funding leverage. Both entities will share in the executive management of the program and the procurement of equipment, materials, and contract R&D as defined by the ISMT management team. Initially, ISMT will send a small project team of about 10 people to Albany to oversee the start-up; ultimately, the program is projected to include 30 ISMT employees and assignees, and involve over 500 UAlbany and other university faculty and staff, national laboratory and industry scientists and researchers, and material and equipment supplier engineers and technicians. “We’re ready to launch this program,” said Kemp. “Our first tools will arrive in February, and our staff is set to hit the ground running.”

“And we’re ready to receive the ISMT team and launch a long and fruitful partnership that will generate an excellent return on our mutual investment,” stated Alain E. Kaloyeros, executive director of Albany NanoTech of the University at Albany. He added, “Clearly, the state-of-the-art resources of the Governor’s Center of Excellence in Nanoelectronics have launched a new era for New York and UAlbany, as we partner with International SEMATECH in hosting international programs in advanced semiconductor research and development. This announcement is a glowing testimony to the vision and leadership of Governor Pataki and his successful strategy in turning New York and its public university system into an international high-technology magnet.”

HumaniTech Revitalizes the Humanities
By Heidi Weber
The University has announced the launch of the “HumaniTech Semester: Humanity and Culture in an Age of Technology.” This bold interdisciplinary initiative aims to revitalize the humanities in an age of rapid scientific and technological advancement, and to raise philosophical questions about how technology is reshaping humanity. The project’s diverse blend of programs, exhibitions, performances, seminars, film and media presentations will run through the Spring 2003 semester and showcase faculty research and educational programs in areas where the humanities, sciences, and technology intersect.

The semester’s anchor events include The Technology Plays, funded in part by the Woodrow Wilson Foundation’s “Imagining America” grants program, a project that unites UAlbany’s HumaniTech with Capital Repertory Theatre to bring players and audience members together in a series of short interactive plays that explore the complex relations between humans and machines. This unique aesthetic and educational project features commissioned plays by Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Kennedy and international playwright and television writer Richard Dresser (“The Education of Max Bickford”). The Faculty Seminar, a series of seven two-hour seminars to be held throughout the semester, will promote exchange among scholars, community members, and students from schools and disciplines across the University. There will be a lecture and photographic exhibition at the University Art Museum by Gary Schneider, who extends the definition of the self-portrait into his own cells through use of various medical-imaging techniques; a performance by The Kitchen Sisters of National Public Radio; and a symposium, “Scholarly Publishing and Archiving on the Web: New Opportunities,” exploring emerging models for publishing and archiving electronic scholarship using institutional venues.

The HumaniTech Initiative, co-directed by Department of English faculty members Mary Valentis and Charles Shepherdson, draws on the University’s strong profile in the social sciences and technology, and includes faculty from the College of Arts and Sciences and professional schools, the New York State Writers Institute, the Cliomedia Initiative, and the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, as well as collaborative partners from the Capital Region community. The initiative’s mission is to preserve and transform the humanities in a time of substantial cultural change, and to promote exchange and collaboration between the University and the surrounding community.

For additional information about UAlbany’s HumaniTech Semester, visit www.albany.edu/humanitech.

Jo Anne Carson
Sculpture at the Brooklyn Museum
In the spring of 2002, JoAnne Carson, chair of the University at Albany’s Department of Art, received the first Sculpture Purchase Prize ever awarded by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The sculpture, Bouquet (2001), was subsequently acquired by the Brooklyn Museum and is currently on display in the museum’s fifth-floor American Wing.