ATMI awards UC Berkley researchers $2M

ATMI, Inc. has awarded a gift to the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) in the amount of $2 million. In a public event on the UC Berkeley campus, ATMI's Chief Executive Officer, Doug Neugold, presented the gift to S. Shankar Sastry, Dean of the College of Engineering, and Professor Chenming Hu of the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences. The gift to the college will support on-going work by Professor Hu and his colleagues in the effort to develop ultra-low power consuming microelectronic device architecture and design that would enable even more useful mobile devices.

ATMI is a supplier of advanced materials for the semiconductor industry based in Danbury, Connecticut. Since 1986, ATMI has developed capabilities in rapid process development, high performance materials, ultra-clean materials utilization/packaging solutions, and global supply chain management.

Energy efficiency is the next major barrier to new applications and markets for semiconductor circuits. Professor Hu and his colleagues will conduct leading-edge design and research in an effort to reach new milestones for sustainable solutions in power storage, consumption and overall efficiency. Their efforts are maximized by the availability of the Berkeley Nanofabrication Laboratory facility on campus.

ATMI's Chief Executive Officer, Doug Neugold,  Professor Chenming Hu of the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences and S. Shankar Sastry, Dean of the College of Engineering. Photograph by Noah Berger

“It is our privilege to enable future-focused, microelectronics solution development through such an accomplished team and college at this prestigious university,” commented Mr. Neugold during the campus presentation.

Professor Hu is widely known in the semiconductor industry for his innovative work. He is regarded as the “Father of the 3-D transistor” for initiating the development of FinFET, a leading computer chip design now commonly used by major semiconductor companies and hailed as the most radical shift in semiconductor technology in the last 50 years.

More than 4,800 students study engineering at Berkeley, taught by more than 200 full-time faculty. The mixed-signal MOS integrated circuit was pioneered by electrical engineering researchers at Berkeley, as was computer-aided design for integrated circuits and three-dimensional transistor technology.