The U.S. government’s Science and Chips Act represents a significant federal investment in the semiconductor industry, promoting academic and industrial collaboration on many fronts, such as securing research funding, creating employment opportunities, and co-developing a robust semiconductor workforce. To engage with its members in the semiconductor industry, the UW AMIC team kicked off its company site visit program this summer. Last week, a team from UW-Madison, including AMIC director Xiujuan Jane Zhang, MRSEC Director Dr. Paul Voyles, MRSEC Assistant Director Kerri Philips, MRSEC IRG2 faculty member Daniel Rhodes, and three graduate students, had a fruitful visit to the DRS Daylight Solutions’ Madison site.
The visit was hosted by Dr. Tom Earles, Senior Director of Wafer Processing and Laser Design, and Dr. Matt Dwyer, Project Engineer from Daylight Solutions, both UW-Madison College of Engineering alum. The group engaged in comprehensive discussions about the company’s R&D needs, UW-Madison’s research capabilities, talent solutions, and potential opportunities for deeper collaboration.
Tom and Matt presented the company’s product portfolio of III-V semiconductor lasers covering ultraviolet to mid-IR wavelengths. These included legacy and flagship products and emerging technologies highly relevant to our ongoing compound semiconductor research in optical imaging, laser technologies, and biomedical engineering at the UW-Madison College of Engineering. Specifically, we are very interested in their materials synthesis and device fabrication technologies that produce quantum cascade lasers, which are critical for medical diagnostics, molecular spectroscopy, and defense applications. DRS Daylight Solution has also sponsored an optics course and is providing guidance for the development of a semiconductor curriculum with its neighboring Madison Area Technical College. UW-Madison College of Engineering’s educational outreach goal has always been to involve local community colleges and companies in our workforce development, and we will follow up on this topic continuously.
After the meeting, everyone suited up with “bunny suit” coveralls, hoods, boots, gloves, and eye protection for entry into Daylight’s semiconductor processing cleanroom. Tom and Matt led a guided tour of the company’s facilities, explaining the complex process of thin-film epitaxy, device fabrication, and characterization. Even though UW-Madison College of Engineering has its own Nanoscale Fabrication Center, which has similar capability for III-V/III-Nitride semiconductor materials and devices, this tour provided our team, especially our three graduate students, with a firsthand view of DRS Daylight Solutions’ state-of-the-art equipment and processes, crucial for their product development work. In particular, Tom and Matt were interested in learning about the student’s AI-based wafer-tracking enterprise system for achieving reliability and yield-improving goals.
This successful visit highlighted the synergies between DRS Daylight Solutions and UW-Madison. We both share the same commitment to advancing innovation and developing the next generation of engineers and scientists in the compound semiconductor area. As we initiate our Semiconductor Research Center to advance GaN technologies, photonics thermal management, and chiplet technologies, we look forward to partnering with companies like DRS Daylight Solutions. If your company is interested in exploring partnership opportunities in the semiconductor area, please do not hesitate to contact me at xiujuan.zhang@wisc.edu!