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Contact: Webb Johnson, NextGen, 843-4043 |
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Feb. 14, 2003 INTEL PRESENTS $17.5 MILLION IN EQUIPMENT TO NEXT GENERATION ECONOMY Bruce Leising, Intel vice president of Technology and Manufacturing,
and general manager of Fab Sort Manufacturing, made the announcement today
by unveiling a stack of tool guides and maintenance manuals NextGen technicians
will need to use the equipment. “Intel has been operating in New Mexico for more than two decades
and has had the opportunity to work on a number of community projects,
but this donation truly has the potential to change the landscape of the
research corridor,” said Leising. “Assets that no longer are
economical for high-output wafer-manufacturing facilities at our Rio Rancho
site are state of the art for MEMS and will provide enormous opportunity
for the microelectronics cluster efforts for a long time into the future.” “This is a contribution not just to NextGen but to economic development
in the state and the region,” said Larry Willard, NextGen chairman.
“This is what success looks like: to see local companies move forward
because of this gift.” An initial set of donated equipment is expected to be installed at UNM’s
Manufacturing Training and Technology Center (MTTC), a south campus facility
for teaching, research and development and manufacturing prototyping.
Its semiconductor clean room is used to train engineers from UNM and technicians
from TVI and other community colleges in semiconductor manufacturing and
research. “The equipment strengthens the region’s ability to train engineers
and technicians as team members, strengthens NextGen’s ability to
compete for funds in emerging technology areas, and strengthens the microsystem
cluster’s ability to provide resources for small startups that in
turn will catalyze regional economic development,” said Wood. “We appreciate very much Intel’s foresight and generosity in
donating this equipment to NextGen, and NextGen’s willingness to
work to install some of the tool set in UNM’s MTTC clean room,”
said Joe Cecchi, dean of the UNM School of Engineering. “Not only
would this greatly enhance our educational and research programs in MEMS,
but it would also allow us to collaborate more extensively with
MEMS companies and further increase our economic development activities.” Intel in November completed the $2 billion Fab 11X expansion at its manufacturing
site in Rio Rancho. Fab 11X is the first Intel high-volume manufacturing
plant to use 12-inch wafer technology; Fab11, also in Rio Rancho, is based
on 8-inch manufacturing. This evolution of technologies made 6-inch manufacturing
obsolete in the Rio Rancho plant, but the tools will get a second life
with NextGen and the world of micro machines. NextGen is an economic development group that focuses on industry clusters,
including microsystems. Like computer chips, microsystems can be mass-produced
at low cost by using photolithography to etch a layer at a time until
a three-dimensional device is formed. This $14 billion industry is expected
to be a $30 billion industry by 2004. When NextGen asked local microsystems entrepreneurs what it would take
for their companies to grow, they said they needed fabrication capacity.
NextGen has worked since 1999 to establish a microsystems fab, and the
Intel donation makes that possible. In addition to Intel, the U.S. Department of Energy deserves a great
deal of credit, said Mike Skaggs, NextGen president and CEO. In order
to accept the tools from Intel, NextGen needed funding for insurance,
storage and maintenance. And NextGen needed to buy additional equipment.
The DOE awarded NextGen a $682,000 grant in October. L&M Technologies Inc. provided two technicians, who have supervised
the moving, maintenance and decommissioning of the machines. L&M is
an Albuquerque company specializing in human resource management of facilities
at Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratory and White
Sands Missile Range. “They’re a big player in our cluster,”
said Skaggs. NextGen previously purchased other tools for the microsystems cluster.
The first to use them was MEMX Inc., a tech transfer company founded in
2000 by former Sandia National Laboratories scientists and TMA Ventures
LLC. The Albuquerque startup is developing an optical switch to increase
the speed of data traveling through fiber-optic networks. The company
will likely be the first user of Intel’s donated equipment. MEMX
cofounder Paul McWhorter, former deputy director of microsystems at Sandia,
believes MEMX will be the cornerstone of the Southwest microsystems cluster.
“I applaud Intel for its willingness to donate this equipment,”
said U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman. “Next Generation Economy has been working
for several years to create high-wage, high-tech jobs in New Mexico, and
Intel’s gesture offers a tremendous boost to the organization’s
efforts. Our state is already the leader in the Southwest for the advancement
of MEMS technology. Today’s action gives New Mexico an even further
competitive advantage.” In 1998 Bingaman led a roundtable discussion with key business leaders
to discuss opportunities for economic growth using a cluster strategy.
After that NextGen organized with $350,000 in seed money that Bingaman
helped secure from the DOE. “New Mexico is one of the fastest growing states in the nation,
but we need more and better jobs,” said Congresswoman Heather Wilson.
“NextGen and Intel understand that, and I’m glad to see this
partnership. There are clear signs that the economy is recovering, but
as long as there is one person out of work and without hope, we still
have work to do. I commend NextGen and Intel for this accomplishment
and look forward to building upon this foundation.” MEMS refers to microelectromechanical systems, which are tiny machines that can sense, compute, act and communicate. Also called microsystems or micro machines, MEMS are devices with components that are usually smaller than the diameter of a human hair and larger than a red blood cell. They have such widespread applications in transportation, telecommunications and medicine that the tiny machines are considered the biggest thing since the semiconductor. New Mexico laboratories and local companies see Central New Mexico as a global center for the design and production of microsystems. ### |
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The University
of New Mexico
Public Affairs Department
Hodgin Hall, 2nd floor
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0011
Telephone: (505) 277-5813
Fax: (505) 277-1981
Intel
Corp. presented a $17.5 million Valentine to Next Generation Economy Inc.
at the University of New Mexico’s Manufacturing Training and Technology
Center today. Intel’s donation is 74 pieces of equipment, including
6-inch-semiconductor manufacturing tools that are no longer used at the
company’s Rio Rancho plant.