NDnano and MIND — the nanoelectronics decade

1999 – TODAY

The centers: Notre Dame's Center for Nano Science and Technology — NDnano — was established in 1999. In March 2008 the university won the larger prize: the Midwest Institute for Nanoelectronics Discovery, MIND, established that month (first named the Midwest Academy for Nanoelectronics and Architectures, and renamed MIND in May 2008 to avoid an acronym conflict) as one of the four centers of the Semiconductor Research Corporation's Nanoelectronics Research Initiative — the others at the University of Texas, UCLA and Albany, out of thirty institutions that sought one. The initial funding was $17.4 million over three years, from the NRI, the State of Indiana, the City of South Bend — whose commitment was $1 million, on the mayor's own newsletter of July 2008 — and the participating universities. The consortium joined Notre Dame with Purdue, Illinois, Penn State, Michigan, the University of Texas at Dallas, Argonne National Laboratory, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. Alan Seabaugh directed the center, with Robert Dunn named managing director of both MIND and NDnano in August 2008; the work was housed in Stinson-Remick Hall, and its scientific charge was the device beyond the transistor — MIND led the development of the tunnel field-effect transistor and reached its first demonstrations in compound semiconductors, on Seabaugh's own record.

The succession: The center was extended in 2011 as "MIND 1.5," at $1.1 million a year for two further years, and its line continued in the successor centers Notre Dame led — LEAST, from 2013 one of the six SRC/DARPA STARnet centers sharing $194 million, and ASCENT. The city's million dollars is the fact of this entry that belongs to South Bend rather than to the university: a mid-sized Indiana city put capital into a national semiconductor-research consortium seated on its edge, and the same decision produced, on the city's own ground, the Ignition Park half of the certified technology park taken up in the next entry — the MIND decision of 2008 and the parks decision of 2008 being, in the record, one decision seen from its two sides.

Sources:

1. University of Notre Dame / Semiconductor Research Corporation, March 2008 — the Midwest Institute for Nanoelectronics Discovery established; one of four NRI centers (Notre Dame, Texas, UCLA, Albany), from thirty institutions seeking one; $17.4 million over three years from the NRI, the State of Indiana, the City of South Bend and the universities; the partner institutions as listed.
2. Office of the Mayor, City of South Bend, newsletter (July 2008) — the city's $1 million commitment to MIND.
3. University of Notre Dame, Center for Nano Science and Technology (NDnano) — the center established 1999; the MANA-to-MIND renaming of May 2008; Robert Dunn managing director of both centers (August 2008); the MIND 1.5 extension of 2011 ($1.1 million a year, two years); LEAST among the six STARnet centers from 2013.
4. Alan Seabaugh, University of Notre Dame — MIND's leadership of tunnel field-effect transistor development and its first demonstrations in compound semiconductors.