Weekly The Generation, Year 1, Issue 15
December 12, 2023
SUNY NanoTech is getting a big boost that could help it become a national research hub.
Governor Kathy Hochul was in Albany Monday to announce a $10 billion partnership with leading brands in the semiconductor industry to expand semiconductor research and development. “This historic investment will establish next generation Research and Development Center right here, right here in Albany at the NanoTech complex, the most advanced in the country, that will fund the construction of cutting edge equipment,” said Hochul. “The first and only of its kind in North America. And you ready for the name? I have to ask who came up with this name? Raise your hand if you really want to. ‘High Numerical Aperture Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography Center,’ OK? And don’t askSee me to say that twice.”
The Democrat says under the new initiative, NY CREATES will acquire and install a High NA EUV lithography tool, designed and manufactured by ASML, at its Albany NanoTech Complex, where industry partners including Micron, IBM, Applied Materials, Tokyo Electron, and others will use the most advanced semiconductor equipment ever made to power tomorrow’s mobile phones and computers.
“Semiconductors are absolutely central to our lives, even though you don’t think about them on a regular basis,” Hochul said. “And the cutting edge is constantly evolving, rapidly, rapidly before eyes. Just look no further than the smartphone in your pocket . (Actually don’t look at them, it’s kind of disruptive.) That one little device has more processing power in it than all the computers combined that existed on our planet 50 years ago. That’s amazing. It has 100,000 times the computing power and 9 million times the memory that the computer the Apollo 11 had to land astronauts on the moon. This is in our lifetime, my friends. This is not happening over 50 years, 100 years, this is happening now. And the countries that are able to lead in semiconductors will be at the vanguard of the world’s technological future.”
Copyright 2023 WAMC Northeast Public Radio