Center for Microdevices and Systems

Texas A&M University System · College Station · Brazos County

The Center for Microdevices and Systems (CMDS) is the smaller of the two Texas A&M projects funded by the 2023 Texas CHIPS Act. Its $26.4M allocation buys nanofabrication and metrology tools and infrastructure upgrades at the AggieFab cleanroom, due to finish by summer 2027.

Texas Institute for Electronics; also $840M from DARPAUT Austin TIE$552M Approximate share of the $226.4M A&M allocationTexas A&M TSI building$200M Tools and upgrades at AggieFabTexas A&M CMDS$26.4M
Allocation
$26.4M
Home
AggieFab
Focus
Chips, sensors
Tools due
Summer 2027
County
Brazos
Sector
Chips and fabs

Overview

A Tool Program Inside the AggieFab Cleanroom

CMDS operates mainly through the AggieFab Nanofabrication Facility on the first floor of the Giesecke Engineering Research Building in College Station. AggieFab has 6,500 square feet of Class 100/1000 cleanroom and about 4,500 square feet of support space.

Researchers at the center make semiconductor devices, quantum sensors and biomedical chips. The CHIPS Act money pays for new nanofabrication and metrology equipment and facility infrastructure upgrades; Arum Han, Associate Dean for Research in the College of Engineering, said in April 2026 that the work should finish by summer 2027.

Profile
OperatorTexas A&M University System, College of Engineering
Home facilityAggieFab, GERB, College Station
Funding$26.4M Texas CHIPS Act (2023)
SpendingNanofabrication and metrology tools, infrastructure
ResearchSemiconductor devices, quantum sensors, biomedical chips
CompletionSummer 2027 target
Key officialArum Han, Associate Dean for Research

Funding

One Slice of a $226.4M State Allocation

The 2023 Texas CHIPS Act (HB 5174) gave the Texas A&M System $226.4M: about $200M for the Texas A&M Semiconductor Institute building at RELLIS and $26.4M for CMDS. The same act created the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund and the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Consortium, both run by the Texas CHIPS Office in the governor's office.

UT Austin's Texas Institute for Electronics received the largest university allocation, $552M, plus $840M from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Brazos Valley

Main-Campus Research Feeding a RELLIS Cleanroom

CMDS and AggieFab handle device research and graduate training on the College Station campus. TSI, due in early 2028, adds a 300mm cleanroom at RELLIS eight miles away. The Cyclotron Institute tests finished chips for radiation tolerance. Substrate, a San Francisco startup, has a memorandum of understanding with Texas A&M for a fab called Project Factory One at RELLIS, contingent on financing and incentives. See the Brazos Valley semiconductor concentration for the regional picture.

Record

Dataset Record

Sources
Higher Ed Dive, Construction Dive, GovTech, Office of the Governor of Texas, AggieFab (aggiefab.tamu.edu), UT Austin Cockrell School
Last verified
October 2026