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Changes to the MOSIS Educational Program (MEP)
MOSIS Educational Program Changes
PLEASE READ THIS MESSAGE CAREFULLY, IT CONTAINS VERY IMPORTANT
INFORMATION CONCERNING SIGNIFICANT CHANGES MADE TO THE MOSIS EDUCATIONAL
PROGRAM
The MOSIS Service has been conducting an educational program since
1986, but we find that the sources of funding and how the program
operates are still misunderstood by the users.
From 1986 to 1994, this program was jointly funded by DARPA and
NSF. In 1994, the DARPA funding for MOSIS and for the educational
program ended. At that time and for the last eleven years, MOSIS has
been self-supported, its sole source of revenue derived from its
commercial operations. From that time until 1998 the educational
program was funded jointly by NSF and MOSIS. When the NSF funding
ended in 1998, additional funding was obtained from the SIA/SRC and
some industrial firms to supplement the MOSIS contribution. This
additional funding ended in 2000 (SIA/SRC has indicated that they can
no longer support MEP) and since that time the funding for the
educational program has been provided by MOSIS. In an attempt to aid
educational institutions in the development of instructional and
research programs in integrated circuits within their engineering
departments, MOSIS initiated the MOSIS Educational Program (MEP). The
MEP included an instructional component for support of scheduled
classes in VLSI design to give students a chance to experience the
full cycle of VLSI design, fabrication, and testing of an integrated
circuit and a research component to support UNFUNDED RESEARCH
conducted by graduate students and faculty persons who needed to
develop critical mass in their areas of research in order to attract
funding for future research. Both of these MEP components were offered
at no cost to the universities, with minimal restrictions based on
available MOSIS supported technologies and fabrication scheduling.
Since its creation the MEP has grown to a size that is now seriously
taxing MOSIS support staff as well as our ability to bear the cost of
the MEP. By far the largest component of MEP is the MEP Research
component. We have a strong evidence to suspect that one of the
reasons for this growth is that a number of institutions have abused
the intent of the program, which was to support UNFUNDED research.
Research projects which have existing funding available (or for which
fabrication funding could be obtained) have been included in the
submissions for MEP Research support. The MOSIS Service does NOT
RECEIVE FUNDING FROM NSF OR ANY OTHER GOVERNMENT AGENCY. As stated
earlier, MOSIS revenues are derived entirely from commercial
operations, and it is this revenue stream that has enabled us to
support the educational program. Because of this exponential growth,
(in roughly five years since its creation) and the abuse of the
initial intent (support for unfunded research efforts) it has now
become necessary to place significant restrictions on the program
submissions, and to have MEP Research participants bear some of the
cost of its operation. MOSIS can no longer be the sole financial
support of MEP Research, particularly when research projects that
COULD OBTAIN FUNDING are being submitted for no-cost fabrication.
MOSIS cannot afford to support the research efforts of much larger
institutions and MOSIS lacks the resources to police the program
effectively.
Effective immediately, we are placing an annual¹ restriction of one
chip per university (or per university campus, in the case of state
universities with multiple campuses) with a total area not to exceed
16 square millimeters submitted for free fabrication under MEP
Research. In order to receive this free fabrication allotment, the
MEP Research proposal submitted to MOSIS must be accompanied by a
letter from the Dean certifying that the applicant does not have
external funding for the research project related to the design and
fabrication of the chip described in the MEP Research proposal
submitted to MOSIS. 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.
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.
MOSIS does not provide free MEP packaging for any Research
submission. The cost for packaging devices fabricated under MEP
Research will be in the amount of the discounted price. Be sure to
include your MEP account number when you submit your
Automated
Price Quote Request for packaging costs.
We regret the need to impose these restrictions upon universities who
are participating in the MEP Research program. MOSIS has always
desired to support to university VLSI education and research to
whatever level we are able to afford within the limits of our
organization. We hope that as we enter this new phase of MEP Research
we will be able to consider relaxing some of these fabrication limits
when we are able to secure financial support for MEP Research through
external organizations to help defray some of the cost of fabrication
of university MEP Research designs.
No changes will be made to the MEP Instructional fabrication which
will continue to be free of charge to the participating universities.
Please address any comments or questions to support@mosis.com. All
e-mail sent to
support@mosis.com will be read,
but only those from the account liaisons will be answered.
1 The term annual refers to the academic year which
starts on October 1 and ends September 30.
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Related Links
Commercial Account
Prices
MOSIS FAQs: MEP
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