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History of the program, who supplies the funding, and a description of
the two types of fabrication grants available under the MOSIS
Educational Program.
What Is the MOSIS Educational Program?
History and Funding Sources
The MOSIS Service has been conducting an educational program since
1986. Additional details are available in the document,
" History of the MOSIS
Educational Program."
The MOSIS Service does not receive funding from NSF or any other
government agency. MOSIS sole source of revenue is derived from its
commercial operations.
Types of MEP Accounts
The MOSIS Educational Program (MEP) consists of two divisions: (1) an
INSTRUCTIONAL program, and (2) a RESEARCH program.
Projects MOSIS fabricates that are designed by universities and
subsidized by other entities are not considered part of the MOSIS
Educational Program (MEP).
Instructional Program
The MOSIS Instructional program provides free fabrication of
integrated circuits designed by students in organized classes
associated with an accredited university.
These runs are currently sponsored by MOSIS. AMI Semiconductor
subsidizes wafer cost for one run per quarter in 1.5 and 0.5 µm
CMOS technologies which are used exclusively for Instructional
accounts. During the rest of the year, MOSIS includes projects
submitted by Instructional accounts to scheduled commercial runs on a
space available basis once all commercial requirements have been
satisfied.
Research Program
The MOSIS Research program offers an opportunity to researchers
affilicated with a university to fabricate a design that otherwise
would not be fabricated.
As stated earlier, MOSIS revenues are derived entirely from commercial
operations. Because of the exponential growth in the MEP Research
program, MOSIS can no longer be the sole financial support of MEP
Research. Since there have been abuses of the initial intent of MEP
(support for unfunded research), we must receive written certification
that the project has no source of funding when MOSIS is asked to
subsidize the entire cost of fabrication.
MOSIS will subsidize the fabrication costs of one chip per university
(or per university campus, in the case of state universities with
multiple campuses) per year¹, with a chip area not to exceed 16
square millimeters.
This free chip fabrication will require a MEP Research proposal along
with a letter from the Dean certifying that the research work is not
funded.
Fabrication of this free chip will be provided on a "space available"
basis which means that MOSIS can not guarantee fabrication on the
schedule selected by the applicant.
The cost of packaging is separate and not included for MEP Research
projects. To request some or all of your parts be packaged, send a
purchase order in the amount to cover the cost of packaging. See the
MOSIS Web site for packaging and
assembly guidelines, packaging prices,
and purchase order
instructions.
University participants requiring fabrication of VLSI devices beyond
the above limits may use a university discounted price for
fabrication. Be sure to include your MEP account number when you
submit your Custom Price Quote
Request. Of course, as with a commercial account there are no
restrictions on the total area used or the number of projects
fabricated.
1 The term year refers to the academic year which
starts on October 1 and ends September 30.
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Related Links
MEP Customer Support
MEP Technical Support
MOSIS Educational Program FAQ
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