Albany Wafer R&D Center

Ground was broken last month on NanoFab 300, a $370 million nanotechnology research and education center at SUNY Albany. Named for the 300-millimeter wafers that will be the focus of R&D in nanoelectronics and nanophotonics, NanoFab 300 is planned as a private–public partnership between more than 100 commercial companies and Albany Nanotech, the university’s umbrella organization for coordinating research and outreach programs in nanotechnology. NanoFab 300 will boast the only industry-standard clean rooms for training semiconductor workers in the US and will offer state-of-the-art multidisciplinary research facilities, says Alain Kaloveros, Albany Nanotech’s executive director. The center is scheduled to open in 2003 and will have space for 500 researchers.

To kick-start the center, New York Governor George Pataki last year announced a $50 million donation from the state. This was quickly followed by a $100 million investment by IBM Corp. Kaloveros says he hopes that nearly 85% of NanoFab 300’s costs will be paid by private companies. “The idea is that the center becomes the Bell Labs, the R&D facility for industry. And interest is growing exponentially.”