Northeastern University has a broad set of objectives in developing 3D microelectronics. Our initial funding was received from ONR as a subcontract to Kopin Corporation. In this program, the basic process was developed and demonstrated. We have successfully fabricated ring oscillators and gate delay chains. Details of this program are presented in the section on our 3D microprocessor.
3D microelectronics are well suited to the fabrication of imaging sensors. In our approach, the imaging contains multiple layers of electronics designed to process individual pixel data, perform various image recognition functions and communicate processed information to an imaging system. Our DARPA funded program with Kopin and Polaroid Corporations is presented in the section on our 3D image sensor.
Finally, we have an on-going effort to develop new design tools specifically for 3D.