I wanted to share the following article with you from the Albany Times-Union:

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="677"] Researchers from Tokyo Electron Ltd. work on a wafer tool at the NanoFabX building at SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Albany on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2015.[/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="678"] Researchers with Tokyo Electron Ltd. at the NanoFabX building at SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Albany on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2015.[/caption]

Albany

Tokyo Electron Ltd. has signed a five-year, $262.5 million extension of its research and development agreement with SUNY Polytechnic Institute in a deal that keeps the Japanese computer chip manufacturing equipment maker in Albany through 2020.

The agreement, which took effect Oct. 1 and will be officially announced Thursday, comes 12 years after the company, known in the industry as TEL, chose Albany for its first research lab outside of Japan.

The newly inked deal also is critical because TEL, which makes manufacturing equipment used in chip factories, or "fabs," is expected to play a key role in one or more manufacturing development programs in Albany involving at least $1 billion in spending by the semiconductor industry and hundreds of new jobs, the exact details of which have yet to be made public.

"New York continues to be a wonderful partner to TEL," Tetsuro Higashi, CEO of TEL said in a statement provided to the Times Union. "Through SUNY Poly, Gov. Cuomo has created one of the finest R&D centers in the world for creating next-generation chip technology, and we look forward to our continued collaboration and innovation."

With the deal, TEL's lab, which supports 750 jobs in Albany and elsewhere in New York, will have surpassed $1 billion in investment in the state.

The initial agreement with SUNY Poly involved $300 million in spending, including $100 million from the state.

TEL makes equipment that process the silicon wafers used to make chips. The devices, known as tools, are involved in a variety of steps in the manufacturing process, from plasma etching, photolithography patterning and wafer surface cleaning, to corrective etching of the circuit layout.

TEL will focus especially now on patterning technology and advanced lithography, which is the key to the chip industry's ability to shrink the size of transistors on chips to make them faster and more powerful.

The TEL work will help the industry make chips using next-generation 7-nanometer and 5 nm architecture, which is several generations ahead of the 21 nm and 14 nm chips being produced today. IBM, another major SUNY Poly tenant, unveiled the first working 7 nm chip earlier this year that was developed at SUNY Poly.

Under the terms of the deal, TEL will spend $175 million over five years, while SUNY Poly will contribute $87.5 million.

"We are excited to see the continued growth of our partnership with TEL, which leverages the governor's targeted high-tech investments to enable joint, leading-edge research and maintain New York state's global leadership in the nanotechnology-driven economy of the 21st century," SUNY Poly President Alain Kaloyeros said.

lrulison@timesunion.com • 518-454-5504 • @larryrulison

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