ArizonaDaily Star
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UA prof garners $1.2M for electronics project
By Jack Gillum
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 08.27.2007
Chemical engineering professor Anthony Muscat, center, is planning to develop a sustainable process for high-volume manufacturing of electronics. Science Foundation Arizona awarded $625,000 for two years; partnering firms will back Muscat with money and resources.
A University of Arizona professor will receive more than a million dollars over the next two years to develop a sustainable process for electronics manufacturing.
Anthony Muscat, an associate professor of chemical engineering, plans to find better ways for companies to create electronics by dramatically conserving water and decreasing materials costs.
The award — $625,000 for two years — is part of nearly $10 million in grants handed out by Science Foundation Arizona this month. Muscat said the group of companies he'll be partnering with will match that, bringing the total to more than $1.2 million in cash and other resources.
"The engineering to take something and make it manufacturable is substantial," said Muscat, who is entering his 10th year at the UA. "It motivates the students and gives us other research opportunities."
Chips currently are manufactured using a "subtractive process," whereby a thin layer of material is placed on a chip's surface and a pattern of dots is created. The rest is thrown out.
Muscat's project plans to use biological molecules to do the reverse — an "additive process" that simply applies the pattern of dots. That use of nanotechnology, he said, will greatly cut costs.
In 2003, Muscat was among Scientific American magazine's list of 50 people recognized for their contributions to the advancement of technology in science, engineering, commerce and public policy.
Even before that award, he was working on ways to manufacture semiconductors without using the chemicals currently part of the microchip-etching process.
Muscat will work with several electronics groups including chip giant Intel, Sematech, SEZ America, Semiconductor Research Corp. and ASM.
The foundation awarded grants to others at the UA,including Dr. Jeffrey Cossman, the chief scientific officer of the Critical Path Institute, and botanist David Galbraith. Cossman will get more than $2 million over two years for research in targeted cancer therapy. C-Path is a Tucson-based partnership conceived to accelerate the Food and Drug Administration's approval process. Galbraith snagged a similar-sized award for clinical research.
The science foundation's Strategic Research Group program was designed "to seed major, high-impact collaborations between state researchers and industrial partners," the group said. One of the partners in this year's awards is Oro Valley-based Ventana Medical Systems, whose products include cancer-testing equipment.
● Contact reporter Jack Gillum at 573-4178 or at .