The Israeli chip consortium, MDM - Multi Dimensional Metrology, will begin operating in July 2017. following approval by the Innovation Authority.

The new consortium will deal with the development of measurement and process control technologies in the chip industry, based on data fusion from many sources. The consortium was established at the initiative of Applied Materials and the chairman of the consortium will be Yoram Uziel, director of technology at PDC, Applied Materials' Metrology Division. The State of Israel is expected to participate in approximately 66% of the consortium's budget via the Innovation Authority, for 3-5 years.

The new consortium will include leading companies in the field of process control, such as Bruker (which acquired Jordan Valley of Israel) and Nova; Dell EMC; Nanonics, leader in atomic microscopy measuring solutions; Nanomotion, which develops nanoscale conveyance systems; XWINSYS, which develops measurement equipment for critical final stages of the production line; and EL-MUL, from Nes Ziona, which manufactures detectors for the nanoscale industry. The academic side will include research groups from the Technion, Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University, the Weizmann Institute, Bar-Ilan University and Ben-Gurion University, which will also provide construction services for nanoscale structures.

Uziel defined the consortium’s area of focus as Multi-Dimensional Metrology, in order to express the idea that it is necessary today to integrate different sources of information from different measuring devices in order to overcome the limitations of accuracy, characterization, and resolution of new chips that will be released in the coming years. The industry today faces a number of new challenges. The chip minimization process, culminating in 5 nanometer geometry, and the transition to building 3D structures create difficult problems requiring a new type of technological response.

*Translation based on: http://chiportal.co.il/main-news/49-q/5452-mdm-concorcium-1306179