North Texas Semiconductor Institute (NTxSI)

About NTxSI

At the North Texas Semiconductor Institute, led by The University of Texas at Dallas, our consortium of industry and academic partners is dedicated to expanding workforce development and programming. The institute drives cutting edge research to advance the fundamental understanding of materials and devices for harsh environments. It provides custom semiconductor processing and device support while leveraging innovation and entrepreneurship expertise to help semiconductor start-up companies thrive.

Industry Engagement

NTxSI partners with top local semiconductor industry makers in workforce and research development, including Texas Instruments, Global Wafers, Coherent, Qorvo, Wolfspeed, NXP, Infineon, and others.

North Texas Semiconductor – Workforce Development Consortium

The nationally recognized North Texas Semiconductor Workforce Development Consortium (NTS-WDC), funded for $3 million by the Department of Education, paved the way for actionable success in increasing the semiconductor workforce development pipeline by convening  4-year institutions, community colleges, key industry members and nonprofits. The NTS-WDC community college partners, Collin College, Dallas College, Grayson College, North Central Texas College, and Texas State Technical College, aim to increase engineering technology certificate and degree output 3x over three years. The University of Texas at Arlington is evaluating student and certificate data for the consortium. Insights into the workforce needs of key companies such as Texas Instruments and Global Wafers continue to guide the consortium as we determine the necessary skills, degrees, and experiences valuable to the semiconductor industry.

UT Dallas Semiconductor Research Centers

The UTD Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) believes semiconductors are critical for society, national competitiveness, and sustainable development and bring plenty of opportunities for collaboration. Research in semiconductor science and technology is a core strength of MSE with research covering modeling, simulation, materials, device fabrication, and reliability for conventional and emerging technologies. MSE encompasses multiple engineering research initiatives, including two semiconductor focused centers, the Center for Harsh Environment Semiconductors and Systems (CHESS) and the Texas Analog Center of Excellence (TxACE).

Center for Harsh Environment Semiconductors and Systems (CHESS)

CHESS aims to generate an unprecedented transformative science and technology to enable novel devices and supporting electronics needed for harsh environment that will have a direct impact on the security, industrial, and medical areas while educating a diverse workforce.

The center brings together physicists, chemists, materials scientist, bioengineers and engineers from UT Dallas to take advantage of the uniquely developed infrastructure and academics of UT Dallas and its collaborators.

Texas Analog Center of Excellence (TxACE)

TxACE is the largest analog research center based in an academic institution. Analog and mixed signal integrated circuits engineering is both a significant opportunity and challenge. Analog circuitry is a critical component of nearly every product of the $550+ billion per year integrated circuits industry, as a part of sensing, actuation, communication, power management and others. Digital integrated circuits such as microprocessors, logic circuits and memories are now integrating analog functions such as input/output circuits, phase locked loops, temperature sensors and power management circuits. It is also common to find microcontrollers with multiple analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters. These circuitries impact almost all aspects of modern life: safety security, health care, transportation, energy, entertainment and others.

The increasing importance of analog integrated circuits in electronic systems and the emergence of new applications provide an exciting opportunity. However, the inherent difficulty of the art makes it challenging. Creation of advanced wireless technology and sophisticated sensing and imaging devices depends on the availability of engineering talent for analog research and development. TxACE was established to help translate these opportunities into economic benefits by overcoming the challenge and meeting the need. Support for TxACE has been provided through a collaboration of the state of Texas, Texas Instruments, the Semiconductor Research Corporation, the University of Texas System, and the University of Texas at Dallas. TxACE is committed to transforming analog and power circuit research from a process driven mainly by circuit innovation into a holistic collaborative process that creates revolutionary integrated circuits and systems driven by both great societal needs and industry.

Semiconductor Processing and Device Support

NTxSI provides custom semiconductor processing and device support for UT Dallas internal and external users. Between our in-house state of the art cleanroom, core-facilities, and MSE characterization labs, UT Dallas can continue to conduct high-quality research while servicing local industry.