SVTC Technologies was a technology services company that provided development and commercialization services for

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical conductivity value falling between that of a conductor, such as copper, and an insulator, such as glass. Its resistivity falls as its temperature rises; metals behave in the opposite way. ...

process-based technologies and products. SVTC operated from 2004 to October 2012. It operated facilities in San Jose, California and Austin, Texas. SVTC provided development and production services for

MEMS Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), also written as micro-electro-mechanical systems (or microelectronic and microelectromechanical systems) and the related micromechatronics and microsystems constitute the technology of microscopic devices, ...

microfluidics Microfluidics refers to the behavior, precise control, and manipulation of fluids that are geometrically constrained to a small scale (typically sub-millimeter) at which surface forces dominate volumetric forces. It is a multidisciplinary field th ...

, high voltage, and

Through-silicon via In electronic engineering, a through-silicon via (TSV) or through-chip via is a vertical electrical connection (via) that passes completely through a silicon wafer or die. TSVs are high-performance interconnect techniques used as an alternative ...

(TSV) technologies. These technologies are used in a variety of industries including semiconductor, life sciences, aerospace and defense, consumer-mobility and clean energy. SVTC Technologies' fabrication facilities included CMOS and

process tools as well as microscopy ( Scanning electron microscope,

Transmission electron microscopy Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is a microscopy technique in which a beam of electrons is transmitted through a specimen to form an image. The specimen is most often an ultrathin section less than 100 nm thick or a suspension on a g ...

Atomic Force Microscope Atomic force microscopy (AFM) or scanning force microscopy (SFM) is a very-high-resolution type of scanning probe microscopy (SPM), with demonstrated resolution on the order of fractions of a nanometer, more than 1000 times better than the op ...

Focused ion beam Focused ion beam, also known as FIB, is a technique used particularly in the semiconductor industry, materials science and increasingly in the biological field for site-specific analysis, deposition, and ablation of materials. A FIB setup is a s ...

) and failure analysis equipment.

History

SVTC Technologies began operations as a subsidiary of

Cypress Semiconductor Cypress Semiconductor was an American semiconductor design and manufacturing company. It offered NOR flash memories, F-RAM and SRAM Traveo microcontrollers, PSoC programmable system-on-chip solutions, analog and PMIC Power Management ICs, Ca ...

in 2004. At that time, it was named the Silicon Valley Technology Center. It spun out of Cypress Semiconductor's Fab 1 facility. It became a privately owned, independent company in 2007. SVTC is funded by Oakhill Capital Partners and Tallwood Venture Capital. In December 2007, SVTC acquired the Advanced Technology Development Facility (ATDF), a subsidiary of

SEMATECH SEMATECH (from Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology) is a not-for-profit consortium that performs research and development to advance chip manufacturing. SEMATECH has broad engagement with various sectors of the R&D community, including chipm ...

. At that time, the name was changed to SVTC Technologies. In May 2011, SVTC attained

ISO 13485 ISO 13485 ''Medical devices -- Quality management systems -- Requirements for regulatory purposes'' is a voluntary standard, published by International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for the first time in 1996, and contains a comprehensive ...

certification which is targeted for next generation life science products. SVTC is also

ITAR International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) is a United States regulatory regime to restrict and control the export of defense and military related technologies to safeguard U.S. national security and further U.S. foreign policy objectiv ...

registered.

is required for many defense applications. SVTC closed down in October 2012. Per an e-mail from the company, SVTC "ceased operations and executed a general assignment for the benefit of creditors as of October 15, 2012".

Grant from U.S. Department of Energy to build nation's first photovoltaic manufacturing development facility

On April 10, 2011, the

United States Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United Stat ...

(DOE) awarded SVTC Solar, a subsidiary of SVTC Technologies, $25 million in funding as a part of the DOE's SunShot Initiative. This grant supports the start-up of the first

photovoltaics Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially ...

(PV) manufacturing development facility (MDF) in the U.S. to reduce the costs and development time for the PV industry. On August 3, 2011, it was announced that the grant from the Department of Energy was increased to $30M. In addition, another $55M of equipment, materials and funding was committed by industry partners and customers bringing the total funding to $85M.

The SunShot Initiative

The SunShot Initiative was launched to make large-scale photovoltaic solar energy systems competitive with other forms of energy and eliminate the industry's reliance on subsidies by the end of the decade. The initiative's goal of reducing the costs of PV solar systems to roughly six cents per kilowatt-hour will allow solar energy systems to be broadly deployed across the country. "The SunShot Initiative will not only keep the United States at the forefront in solar energy research and development, but will help us win the worldwide race to build a solar manufacturing industry that produces solar systems that are cost competitive with fossil fuels," said U.S. Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu. The DOE program provides developers two access models: a consortium model patterned after the Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology (SEMATECH) effort of the 1980s, and a commercial model based on SVTC's Technology Development Process — a process that provides customers access to leading-edge technology and enables accelerated commercial development while protecting their valuable IP. The SVTC MDF will provide solar energy innovators access to PV technology: multi- and monocrystalline silicon PV, selective-emitter cells, back-contact cells, emitter wrap-through cells, PERC cells, PERL cells, thin-silicon, 3D cells and hybrid PV technologies.

Aerospace and defense programs

MEMS and nanotechnology development for the Aerospace & Defense industry is on-going at SVTC Technologies. Advanced military and space systems utilize MEMS technology in the areas of infrared imaging devices, optical and electrical switching, displays, munitions, inertial navigation, laser communications, sensors, and night vision systems. Nanotechnology is used to integrate transistors from compound semiconductor technologies together with transistors on a wafer fabricated using a standard silicon CMOS foundry process. The compound semiconductor technologies provide much higher speed-breakdown voltages than CMOS transistors, while CMOS technology provides higher integration density for computation functions. The result is a 10× better power-to-performance improvement versus the equivalent silicon devices.Semiconductor Materials on Silicon
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References

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External links

* ttps://news.yahoo.com/s/prweb/20110427/bs_prweb/prweb8348252_4/ Crocus Technology Successfully Develops 2nd Generation MRAM technology at SVTC Technologies and Transfers to Production Foundry
Failure Modes and Effects Analysis

SVTC Technologies, Semiconductor Manufacturing & Design Community
Defunct technology companies based in California Computer companies established in 2004 Computer companies disestablished in 2012 Defunct computer companies of the United States Semiconductor companies of the United States