Public/ private partnerships
Our world-class research capabilities make PPPL an attractive partner for joint partnerships with private ventures. From fusion start-ups to semiconductor manufacturing and beyond, our expertise and first-rate facilities make this Laboratory an ideal source for helping to advance the national innovation economy.
The Laboratory partners with companies in the U.S. and abroad to speed the development of fusion under the U.S. Department of Energy’s Innovation Network for Fusion Energy (INFUSE) program. These projects range from modeling fusion concepts for a British start-up to providing engineering support for a Berkeley, California, firm developing fusion to power spacecraft and generate electricity.
PPPL has also formed partnerships with two leading U.S. providers of tools for creating computer semiconductors. (See the adjacent Nanotechnology and Low-Temperature Plasma section.) These partnerships focus on developing low-temperature plasmas (LTP) to fabricate structures near the atomic scale. Such plasmas are much colder, often near room temperature, than super-hot fusion plasmas. The collaborations aim to improve the use of plasma for industrial applications that range from the nanofabrication of next-generation semiconductors to the creation of devices for super-fast quantum computers — goals designed to advance U.S. leadership in these highly competitive industries of the future.