Advances in technology rely on advances in development of new materials with superior properties or enhancement of existing materials to meet more stringent performance requirements. These advances were made in the past largely by an empirical approach employing extensive laboratory tests performed on numerous variants of existing materials, gathering and sorting data through practical experience. This traditional, empirical approach is inefficient and has slowed the pace of technological innovation of materials in an era in which information technology has quickened the pace of the marketplace. It also severely restricts the search for unknown materials and inhibits incorporation of materials with modified composition or process route into existing products. Modelling and simulation are emerging as key technologies to support material research and development, and no other technology offers more potential for improving process route, reducing design-to-manufacturing cycle time, and reducing the over-all product realization costs.
SEPARI's Advanced Materials Program is focuses in the computational design of novel advanced materials according to specifications by using high performance computing facilities and Modelation-simulation specialized software in closed loop with manufacturing-characterizing to properly adjust simulation models.
Scientific instruments have been, up until now, limited in its capabilities and operating features by limitations imposed by underlying operating principle, existing data acquisition, data processing and data visualization technologies.
We have reached a stage in the development of several established and emerging industries in which is foreseeable scientific metrology, online characterization, device and process simulation will all play critical roles developing the next generation of critical technologies to various critical components of those industries. There are several industries in which this trend is already apparent: microelectronics, drug discovery, new materials, clinical diagnostics, homeland security and environment protection.
We are particularly interested in surface metrology applied to semiconductor processing for inline metrology for QA purposes since it is an industry in which Chile has no participation at the same time it faculty in the various physics, materials, chemistry and engineering departments that may become keen on developing new competences.
This program requires developing scientific and engineering competences in measurement and characterization technologies. Also requires developing market understanding of the various segments of the research instruments and characterization instruments industry. Specific requirements for hardware, software. Access to small high performance computers ranging from high end workstations, to low end computing clusters.