The Microsystems Packaging Research Center is the largest university-based research and education center focusing on next-generation, system-level integration of electronics. At the heart of the center’s research is a focus on system miniaturization technologies (called System-on-Package) to combine computing, communications, consumer, and bio-electronic functions into a single package or module – a combination that significantly reduces the amount of space needed to house electronics. The center’s effort to refine these technologies supports its mission to improve the competitiveness of the U.S. electronics industry.

The center was established in 1994 as a National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Research Center.

Worth noting: Among the center’s state-of-the-art facilities are clean rooms at a variety of levels (Classes 10, 100, 1000, and 10,000) as well as electron beam lithography, optoelectronic, radio frequency (RF), digital, assembly, thermal, and test and reliability laboratories. 

Institutions involved: Georgia Institute of Technology

The center has 21 industry partner members, including Intel, Sony, Nokia, Panasonic, National Starch and Chemical, Endicott Interconnect, Motorola, Hitachi, and Northrop Grumman. Additionally, PRC has generated several startup companies.

Research focus: The center’s research focuses on System-on-Package, a technology to “miniaturize” systems to combine computing, communications, consumer, and bio-electronic functions in a single package or module.

GRA investment: The center is led by GRA Eminent Scholar and Pettit Scholar Rao R. Tummala.  GRA investments in the center have helped to generate a cumulative economic impact of some $351 million in Georgia.

External funding: The PRC is supported primarily by the NSF, DoD and a wide range of industry partners.

Web site: http://www.prc.gatech.edu/