South SFV Today

The Stanford Nanofabrication Facility (SNF) has announced a significant upgrade, thanks to a new collaboration with and funding from the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC). The facility, located in the Paul G. Allen Building at Stanford University, has been a crucial resource for researchers and industry collaborators in Silicon Valley since its inception as the Integrated Circuits Laboratory over fifty years ago.

This renovation comes amidst major developments in the semiconductor industry. The August 2022 rollout of the CHIPS and Science Act marked a $150 billion initiative by the Biden administration to bolster the American semiconductor sector. In June 2024, Nvidia, founded by Stanford Engineering alumnus Jensen Huang, became the world’s most valuable company. Additionally, Stanford engineers recently secured a multimillion-dollar Department of Defense contract aimed at translating next-generation chips from university laboratories to large-scale industrial fabrication.

“Suddenly, hardware is king … again,” stated H.-S. Philip Wong, professor of electrical engineering at Stanford and a leading chip technologist. Wong expressed optimism about the collaboration with TSMC, which will introduce new research equipment into SNF. The School of Engineering will also co-invest in expanding SNF’s lab space by 20%.

Mary Tang, managing director of SNF, highlighted that the facility serves over 600 users annually, including around 25% from outside Stanford in industry, government, and other academic institutions. “It’s the beginning of a new era for the SNF,” she said.

Semiconductor technology is essential for advancements in artificial intelligence, 5G communications, and quantum computing. It plays a critical role in addressing societal challenges such as healthcare digital transformation and climate change mitigation.

Mark Horowitz from Stanford's Department of Electrical Engineering emphasized that new materials are vital for advancing semiconductor technologies. “What I’m really excited about is that these upgrades will put us in a great position for the future with a state-of-the-art research facility that everyone can share,” he noted.

Srabanti Chowdhury, associate professor of electrical engineering and frequent user of SNF’s facilities, pointed out that wide-bandgap semiconductors like gallium nitride could offer significant energy efficiency advantages. She praised SNF’s pioneering approach: “The SNF set the standard of what a shared facility could and should be.”

Eric Pop, another professor of electrical engineering at Stanford, explained how his team is exploring semiconductors just a few atoms thick. He stressed that cleanroom conditions are crucial for their experiments due to the tiny scale involved.

Pop concluded by discussing his team's work on integrating two-dimensional semiconductors into three-dimensional chips: “We are looking forward to taking advantage of this new equipment and the essential reliability and cleanliness that SNF’s new machines and facilities will offer.”