For UAF, lucrative ideas grow smaller
FAIRBANKS - Scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks are hoping to make a big splash in the local economy by making smaller electronics.
In August, the university's Office of Electronic Miniaturization received final approval to use miniaturization technology pioneered by Tessera Technologies Inc., to provide packaging and assembly services for a variety of semiconductor devices.
The technology - known as chip-scale packaging - allows the university to repackage integrated circuits using a suite of tools created by Tessera. The end result is packages - anything from flash memory cards to microprocessors - that are smaller and more powerful.
"Chip-seal packaging reduces the distances, both vertically and horizontally, between electronic components, making them more energy efficient and reliable," said John Dickinson, chief financial officer for UAF's Office of Electronic Miniaturization.
While the technology is used in Asia and elsewhere in the large-scale production of consumer electronics, most U.S. producers have moved their factories overseas to reduce labor costs.
Officials at the university are targeting companies that build electronics for the military and are therefore looking for laboratories in the U.S. to do research and testing.
"We think we can provide a small business or defense contractors the testing capability that will allow them to try several designs before sending a product into mass production," Dickinson said.
The university has a contract with Crane Aerospace and Electronics to provide electronic microprocessors and memory chips for a intrusion-detection system for the military.
UAF scientists are working with another defense contractor to miniaturize memory modules for use in satellites.
Scientists with the miniaturization project are also involved in discussions with organizers of the new Cold Climate Building and Infrastructure Research and Testing Facility about creating computerized control systems for residential homes.
Tessera began working on a licensing agreement with the university in 2002, said Stu Abrahamson, vice president of miniaturization business for Tessera.
The $1.5 billion company has similar licensing agreements with North Dakota State University and the University of California Riverdale.
"It gives the universities an opportunity to get involved in some real economic development opportunities," Abrahamson said.
Tessera licenses the technology, which helped revolutionize the mobile-phone industry in the 1990s, to more than 50 commercial companies.
The transfer of technology is part of the university's efforts to develop an advanced-technology center on the Fairbanks campus.
The center will enhance the university's training, education and research programs as well as help spur economic growth in Alaska's technologies sector, Dickinson said.
The university built a state-of-the-art clean room in the Natural Sciences Facility, a modern 123,000-square-foot complex of science laboratories and classrooms, to house the technology program.
The program brings in about $5 million annually to the university.