Applied Materials and UCLA to Collaborate on Chip R&D at EPIC Center
Applied Materials, Inc. today announced that the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering will join the company’s EPIC Center in Silicon Valley as a research partner. Together with Applied’s scientists and engineers, UCLA researchers will work to solve semiconductor materials and integration challenges with a focus on shortening the time it takes to bring breakthrough research to commercialization.
“As the industry races to bring new AI chip technologies to market, the EPIC Center will play a pivotal role by convening the industry’s top innovators in a collaborative environment designed to accelerate the path from breakthrough research to full-scale manufacturing,” said Dr. Prabu Raja, President of the Semiconductor Products Group at Applied Materials. “UCLA has a long history of semiconductor technology innovation and Applied looks forward to welcoming their researchers to the EPIC Center where together we will work to solve the industry’s toughest challenges.”
The EPIC Center aims to accelerate chip R&D by bridging the gap between traditional academic innovation and industrial-scale development. UCLA researchers will have access to advanced chipmaking tools so that new ideas can be validated and tested in a commercial fab environment, thereby shortening the path from concept to production.
UCLA Samueli brings extensive expertise across semiconductor devices, materials, electronics and computing. In 1991, Henry Samueli co-founded Broadcom Corporation while teaching at UCLA. The school is also home to the Center for Heterogeneous Integration and Performance Scaling (CHIPS) Lab, which brings together researchers across disciplines to advance semiconductor technologies and address challenges in chip design, manufacturing and integration.
By collaborating at the EPIC Center, Applied Materials and UCLA will focus R&D programs on the semiconductor industry’s most critical challenges in areas including 3D chip scaling, advanced packaging and the discovery of new materials for improving energy-efficient AI compute performance. The work will complement and extend the efforts of UCLA’s Semiconductor Hub, which Applied joined as a co-founding member earlier this year. Applied’s ongoing commitment to strengthen the ties between industry and academia is aimed at empowering the next generation of engineers and researchers to bring semiconductor breakthroughs to market faster.
“Accelerating semiconductor innovation in the new era of AI requires transformative collaboration between universities and industry partners more than ever before,” said Ah-Hyung “Alissa” Park, Ronald and Valerie Sugar Dean of UCLA Samueli. “UCLA has a long history of pioneering semiconductor research and innovation, and this collaboration builds on that legacy by bringing together university research and industry expertise to advance the chip technologies that will define the future of computing while preparing the next generation of engineers.”
Applied’s new EPIC (Equipment and Process Innovation and Commercialization) Center in Silicon Valley represents the largest-ever U.S. investment in advanced semiconductor equipment R&D. The center is designed from the ground up to dramatically reduce the time it takes to commercialize breakthrough technologies from early-stage research to full-scale manufacturing. The facility is on track to become operational in 2026. Visit the EPIC Center website to learn more.
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