'Innovation and job-creation engine': ASU, Applied Materials to create research center in Tempe

Arizona State University has joined forces with a Silicon Valley giant in a $270 million partnership to create an advanced research and development center in Tempe to support Arizona's semiconductor industry and spur educational opportunities for students.

The deal with Applied Materials Inc. will create a "Materials-to-Fab" center at ASU Research Park, with the company providing around $200 million in funding and other support, including the donation of state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment.

The MTF Center will enable students, faculty and Applied Materials representatives to work with industry partners, startup companies, government entities and other academic institutions. The new ASU alliance will focus on materials-deposition technology, referring to processes in which various layers of materials are placed on a surface.

A key feature of the alliance involves installation of advanced Applied Materials equipment for use by students, faculty members and other companies, said Sally Morton, an ASU professor of statistics and executive vice president of the school's Knowledge Enterprise unit.

By encouraging startup companies to use and gain familiarity with equipment not generally available to them, the partnership could encourage business growth and employment gains down the road, Morton said. In addition, the availability of such equipment could help ASU attract and retain faculty, she added.

Semiconductors, or chips, are the increasingly tiny and sophisticated electrical components used to operate all sorts of appliances, machinery, cellphones, computers, vehicles and more. The U.S. industry received a big boost for research and production with passage of the CHIPS and Science Act in 2022.

Closer academic, industry ties

Applied Materials, the world’s largest provider of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, recently has increased its collaboration with leading universities, including ASU. The company, based in Santa Clara, California, employs about 33,000 people globally and earned a profit of $6.5 billion on $25.8 billion in revenue in 2022.

“What this alliance will do is expand impact, deliver the mechanisms for finding new ways of doing things and, if we are successful, it will yield results that we can use to innovate again," said ASU President Michael Crow in a prepared statement.

Arizona's semiconductor industry is growing, most notably from a major expansion of an Intel campus in Chandler and development of a Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. complex in north Phoenix.

Morton predicted the partnership with Applied Materials will make Arizona more competitive in microelectronic R&D and production.

Gary Dickerson, president and CEO of Applied Materials, in a statement said he envisions the new center as "playing a key role in accelerating materials-engineering innovations, commercializing academic research and strengthening the pipeline of future semiconductor-industry talent.”

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The MTF Center will be housed in existing cleanroom space in the MacroTechnology Works building at ASU Research Park. It's currently being designed and is expected to be operational within two years.

The Arizona Commerce Authority, which helped to cement the partnership, is expected to invest $30 million in the center, with ASU pitching in $17 million. That's along with $25 million in state funding from the Arizona New Economy Initiative and proceeds from the sale of bonds.

Applied Materials has pledged more than $200 million in capital investments and equipment, plus research and scholarship funding.

Scholarships and jobs potential

Applied Materials intends to launch an endowment fund that will provide scholarships to first-generation college students and underrepresented minority students in the Fulton Schools of Engineering.

The company also has a fund that provides grants to women nearing completion of their undergraduate degrees in engineering.

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, also in a prepared statement, said the new MTF Center will establish "an innovation and job-creation engine" for the semiconductor industry, including both small and large companies, and will provide "a nexus for academic-industry collaboration in support of the objectives of the CHIPS and Science Act."

Reach the writer at russ.wiles@arizonarepublic.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: ASU, Applied Materials partner to build semiconductor research center