The Texas Institute for Electronics (TIE) at the University of Texas at Austin will receive $840 million to develop the next generation of high-performing semiconductor microsystems for the U.S. Department of Defense.
The university says in a news release that the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) has selected the institute to establish a national open access R&D and prototyping fabrication facility that will enable the defense department to create higher performance, lower power, light weight and compact defense systems.
TIE is a UT Austin-supported semiconductor consortium. The new microsystem designs will be enabled by 3D Heterogeneous Integration (3DHI) — a semiconductor fabrication technology that integrates diverse materials and components into microsystems using precision assembly technologies.
The project represents a total investment of $1.4 billion. The $840 million award from DARPA is a substantial return on the Texas Legislature’s $552 million investment in TIE, which has funded modernization of two UT fabrication facilities to strengthen long-term U.S. technology leadership. These facilities will be open to industry, academia and government.
The program is composed of two phases — each 2.5 years in length. In Phase 1, TIE will establish the center’s infrastructure and basic capabilities. In Phase 2, the center will engineer 3DHI hardware prototypes important to the Department of Defense and automate processes. It will also work with DARPA on separately funded design challenges.
