With the aim of advancing semiconductor research, Santa Clara, Calif-based semiconductor manufacturing equipment leader Applied Materials is donating more than $5 million worth of processing equipment and services to the University of California, Berkeley’s Nanofabrication Laboratory in the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS), which complements equipment that the company donated to the university in 2002.

CITRIS is a center for graduate students, faculty and industrial researchers to create nanotechnology solutions for some of world’s most pressing social, environmental and health care issues.

“In order to accelerate breakthrough technologies, we believe it is important for students to work on advanced equipment and gain hands-on experience working on semiconductor devices. We are pleased to be part of CITRIS and look forward to working together with students and faculty, and to a stronger affiliation with the University,” commented Om Nalamasu, deputy CTO and VP of advanced technologies at Applied, in a statement.

The tools will be used by engineering students to accelerate groundbreaking research in semiconductor and related nanofabrication technology that could fuel new discoveries, noted Shankar Sastry, dean of the College of Engineering at Berkeley.

Source: Semiconductor.net