Taking Moore´s law into the next century

The Semiconductor Research Corp. is one of the few organizations to get fierce competitors like Intel, Motorola, and IBM to the same table, let alone cooperate, and it has also wrangled money-$37 million annually-from these companies and others. With this money, it funds future research to keep the engines of semiconductor production churning. In short, the SRC is bent on taking Moore´s law into the next century by coordinating “precompetitive” academic research to meet industry´s needs. Together with its sister organizations-the Semiconductor Industry Association and Sematech-SRC helps chart and promote the continued progress of the semiconductor industry. Their main tool for doing so is the National Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors. Published every two years, this document outlines research areas that need attention so that the industry can maintain the pace of semiconductor production. This article discusses two of those areas-interconnects, and design and test-in depth