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The programme with NY Creates will give students hands-on experience in semiconductor process integration through virtual fabrication, as the industry faces a growing shortage of skilled talent.
Lam Research is set to help train approximately 3,500 students in semiconductor process integration over the next five years, as the industry works to address a growing shortage of engineers with practical chipmaking experience.
The semiconductor equipment maker has announced a collaboration with New York Center for Research, Economic Advancement, Technology, Engineering and Science (NY Creates), a New York not-for-profit organisation that owns and operates the Albany NanoTech Complex.
Under the programme, students across NY Creates' network of partner colleges and universities in the Northeast will use Lam's SEMulator3D virtual fabrication software for hands-on learning in semiconductor process integration.
The initiative is aimed at addressing a skills gap that has become more pressing as next-generation chip technologies require engineers to understand increasingly complex manufacturing processes.
Bridging the semiconductor skills gap
While universities can provide students with engineering and semiconductor theory, many do not have access to the cleanrooms, fabrication equipment and materials needed to offer practical process integration experience.
The collaboration is intended to bridge that gap by bringing industry-grade virtual fabrication tools into academic programmes without requiring students to access a physical cleanroom.
David Fried, Chief AI Officer and Corporate Vice President for Semiverse Solutions at Lam Research, said preparing future semiconductor engineers requires more than classroom instruction.
Through the collaboration, students are expected to gain experience with the process decisions involved in producing advanced chips before entering a fabrication facility, he said.
SEMulator3D is a semiconductor process modelling platform that uses physics-based simulation to replicate fabrication steps such as etch, deposition and lithography. The software allows students to build a virtual fabrication flow and examine how different process steps interact. They can also analyse and optimise manufacturing decisions without using physical wafers.
By seeing the impact of individual process decisions, students will be able to develop a deeper understanding of not only what happens during chip manufacturing, but why particular approaches are used.
Integrating the software into engineering curricula is also expected to help students build knowledge of the complexities involved in manufacturing chips across current and future technology nodes.
Dr Robert Geer, Vice President for Education and Workforce Development, NY Creates, said the collaboration would bring virtual fabrication capabilities to partner institutions across the Northeast.
The programme is intended to give students exposure to learning that is aligned with the requirements of advanced semiconductor manufacturing and support the region's longer-term talent pipeline.
Programme to expand semiconductor education
The collaboration will focus on three areas of workforce development.
First, NY Creates and its partners will develop semiconductor process integration coursework aligned with advanced logic technologies and modern fabrication flows.
Second, SEMulator3D will be used to expand virtual learning across NY Creates' workforce development network, allowing college and university students to gain experience with complex device architectures.
Third, the programme will also support regional workforce initiatives, including the National Network for Microelectronics Education Northeast.
NY Creates serves as the Regional Node lead for the initiative, helping coordinate collaboration between education providers and industry across the wider Northeast semiconductor ecosystem.
Lam Research plans US$3bn R&D expansion
Separately, Lam Research plans to invest more than US$3bn over the next five years to expand its global research and development (R&D) laboratory network.
The multi-site expansion is expected to increase the company's experiment capacity by more than 50%, adding infrastructure and capabilities across its network of specialised laboratories.
The company said its R&D model brings together labs in different locations, each focused on a specific stage of the innovation cycle, alongside customer collaboration and facilities located close to customer sites.
Together, the laboratories operate as an integrated 24/7 network, allowing Lam to run development work in parallel across locations and at scale.
The investment is intended to shorten product development cycles, from early-stage pathfinding through to deployment in semiconductor fabrication facilities.
Tim Archer, President and Chief Executive Officer, Lam Research, said the pace of innovation has accelerated in the AI era, with chipmakers requiring new architectures, materials and increasingly complex features engineered at nanoscale precision.
He added that increasing the speed of the R&D process has become a key advantage, with the company investing to anticipate customer needs and strengthen its ability to develop the next generation of semiconductor technologies.
Global labs support more than one million experiments
Lam's R&D network currently spans the US, Asia and Europe, with its combined infrastructure supporting more than one million experiments each year.
Its facilities cover different areas of the development process. Laboratories focused on foundational research in new chemistries, materials and mechatronics can, in some cases, reduce work that would typically take weeks to just a few days.
Process development laboratories then take these advances towards production readiness, with engineering, product development and manufacturing teams working alongside one another on the same equipment.
Meanwhile, Lam's technology centres are located close to customers to support qualification and validation work with their engineering teams.
The company said the integrated network also allows tools, data and expertise to be shared between laboratories and across time zones.
This means a development made at one site can be shared with teams elsewhere, helping to build on discoveries across the wider R&D network.
In recent customer engagements, Lam said this approach has helped shorten process development timelines by up to 2.5 times.
Investment comes as AI drives semiconductor demand
Scott DeBoer, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology and Products Officer at Micron Technology welcomed the investment, noting the companies' longstanding collaboration in memory and storage technologies.
"Our longstanding collaboration with Lam continues to drive innovation in leading-edge front-end and advanced packaging technologies, and we look forward to building on this momentum to scale AI across the semiconductor ecosystem," he added.
John West, Chief Analyst, Semiconductor Equipment at Yole Group said wafer-level semiconductor device processing remains central to the wider semiconductor ecosystem and the development of future chip technologies.
He noted that AI-related investment is increasing demand for deposition and etch processes, while advances in Lam's etch, deposition and advanced packaging equipment, alongside EUV and DUV lithography technologies, are supporting the production of semiconductor devices.
Maintaining this momentum, he added, will require the semiconductor industry to accelerate innovation, shorten development cycles and bring new technologies into manufacturing more quickly.
Lam said it plans to begin expanding its global laboratory network this year, with the investment aimed at increasing the speed and scale of its innovation efforts.
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