Applied Materials, ASU Celebrate Opening of Materials-to-Fab Center

Applied Materials, Inc. and Arizona State University (ASU) marked the official opening of the Materials-to-Fab Center, a shared world-class $270 million research, development and prototyping facility inside the university’s MacroTechnology Works at ASU’s Research Park in Tempe.

A ribbon-cutting event was held at the center as semiconductor industry leaders from around the globe gathered in nearby Phoenix for the SEMICON West conference.

Applied Materials executives, including Dr. Prabu Raja, president of the Semiconductor Products Group, and ASU president Michael Crow were joined at the ribbon-cutting by Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs and other government and city leaders to highlight the benefits that the MTF Center will bring to Arizona and the entire semiconductor industry.

The Materials-to-Fab Center is designed to accelerate the transfer of innovations from ideation to fab prototype by bringing Applied Materials’ state-of-the-art semiconductor manufacturing equipment into a collaborative environment where the university, industry partners, startups, government entities and other academic institutions can work together.

“Universities are the foundation of America’s semiconductor innovation pipeline, and we look forward to bringing together ASU’s world-class engineering teams with Applied Materials technologists and ecosystem partners at the Materials-to-Fab Center,” says Dr. Prabu Raja, president of the Semiconductor Products Group at Applied Materials. “These collaborations will focus on accelerating development of new chip technologies that are crucial to U.S. leadership in AI, high-performance computing and other megatrends shaping the future.”

Applied Materials is the largest U.S. producer of semiconductor manufacturing equipment. Its tools are used to produce virtually every new chip in the world.

Arizona State University has emerged as one of the nation’s leading universities in helping to shape the future of American microelectronics. As the recipient of several large investments from state, federal and private sector stakeholders, ASU conducts work across the entire microelectronics ecosystem – from front-end innovation to advanced packaging and large-scale manufacturing. With the largest engineering school in the country – approximately 33,000 students – ASU is also a driving force behind workforce and talent development.