Clarkson University celebrates $6.1B federal investment into Micron

POTSDAM, N.Y. (WWTI) — A win for Micron Technology and Northern New York STEM education.

In mid-April, Micron was awarded $6.1 in federal funding to support the construction of its $100 billion megafab in Central New York.

U.S. President Joe Biden visited Syracuse to celebrate the major federal investment on April 25.

Micron’s campus in Clay, New York will be built over the next 20 years. According to the company’s plans the semiconductor factory, will cover about 2.4 million square feet, which is the size of almost 40 football fields.

The new federal investment has excited local higher education institutions, like Clarkson University.

“The bottom line is that you’re bringing bringing a company like Micron into the New York sort of chip manufacturing fold is really, really good,” Devon Shipp, the director of Clarkson’s Center for Advanced Materials Processing said.

The Center for Advanced Materials Processing, otherwise known as CAMP, has been at the forefront of worldwide semiconductor research since the 1980s.

With this reputation, they are now leading projects with Micron. CAMP’s main projects include Chemical Mechanical Planarization and environmental sustainbility of chip manufacturing.

“One of the key components of a chip manufacturing process is to deposit layer upon layer of materials at a really, really small level, like atomically flat surfaces. To be able to make sure that those materials are completely flat, there’s a technology called Chemical mechanical planarization or CMP,” Shipp explained. “Sort of really understanding and pushing that technology to its limits or that can be faster or smaller and so on.”

Shipp is also a professor of  chemistry and biomolecular science at Clarkson.

He added that the entire University has worked to train its students and create the next generation of Micron workers.

“Students really get to know not just the technology, but they get sort of ingrained in the fabric of the research projects and then they getting engaged with people who work in industry,” Shipp said.

So Shipp, his students, fellow faculty and Clarkson University as a whole, are excited for Micron’s move to Central New York.

“While I have to add other fabs, I think there’s something even more exciting about this being, you know, literally just down the road,” Shipp expressed. “Clarkson has carved out it’s sort of a niche area where it can be is successful and we can collaborate with the other universities, other entities around around New York State and make sure that we’re sort of fully successful.”

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