///////

Giving Priorities

Semiconductor Manufacturing and Workforce Development Initiative

This bold initiative expands our cleanroom infrastructure, enriches real-world education and research opportunities, and solidifies UD's role in advancing one of the most critical sectors of the modern economy: semiconductors. 

UD is currently Ohio’s only private university with a Class 100 semiconductor cleanroom. We aim to expand and enhance our facilities and capabilities to become a vital hub for semiconductor innovation, workforce excellence and economic growth in the Midwest.

Support the Semiconductor Initiative
Explore Our Research Collaboration With IBM
Students holding IBM sign

Envisioning the Future

Rendering showing sign and entrance to Semiconductor Lab
Renderings

Cleanrooms require specialized knowledge, significant investment and ongoing operational support. Our current facility has a very small footprint (~500 square feet), which has limited our ability to engage in more ambitious research projects. Modernizing and scaling this facility will allow us to address workforce shortages and support advanced R&D.

Rendering showing inside of new Semiconductor Lab
Renderings

Our vision for the future semiconductor manufacturing lab is an expanded 4,000-square-foot cleanroom (about eight times larger than our existing lab). Unlike the current facility, the new lab will include separate areas for lithography, metrology, thin films, packaging, testing and teaching/collaboration. The new facility will allow us to separate projects with ITAR requirements as well as other industry ad-hoc R&D projects from our teaching and training efforts.

Rendering showing inside of Semiconductor Lab through glass windows
Renderings

Collaboration with Dayton-area industries and government labs, already an integral part of our activities, will be enhanced through a more robust, structured semiconductor manufacturing and testing facility. It will also strengthen our partnership with Sinclair Community College on semiconductor education and workforce development by providing more space and resources to accommodate a larger number of trainees.

Key Highlights

Academics

This bold initiative will provide more hands-on academic experiences for undergraduate and graduate students. It will also enhance academic offerings in semiconductor technology and photonics, including supporting the new undergraduate co-major in semiconductor manufacturing engineering and minor in semiconductor manufacturing.

Research

UD has over $3.5 million in active semiconductor grants, with research projects occurring in a variety of academic departments and the University of Dayton Research Institute. This initiative will allow us to expand our efforts in advanced electronic materials, thin films, semiconductor photonics, nanotechnology, energy storage and automation.

Training

As outlined in the CHIPS and Science Act, there is a critical need for domestic semiconductor manufacturing, research and development. UD's Semiconductor Scholars Program will train a new generation of skilled professionals, who will help strengthen national security, improve economic competitiveness, and produce a more robust and diverse supply of microchips.

Partnerships

UD already has strong partnerships with the Air Force Research Laboratory and local technology companies, and we are part of the Intel-funded OASiS workforce training consortium. Having an enhanced laboratory and training space will strengthen existing collaborations, create new partnerships, spur innovation, and provide students with opportunities for their capstone projects, internships and research. 

Research Experience for Undergraduates

Semiconductor Electronics and Photonics

UD is the host site for an NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program. This residential summer program provides undergraduates from across the nation with opportunities to learn about semiconductor materials, explore careers in the industry, and gain hands-on training in fabrication of microelectronics in a cleanroom environment.

Explore the Semiconductor Summer Program
Student looking through a microscope in the clean room