Dive Brief:
- The Department of Commerce plans to open a competition to further domestic capabilities in advanced packaging substrates and materials. The substrate is the underlying physical structure semiconductor devices are made on and the materials are any substance used in the chip manufacturing process.
- The CHIPS Research and Development Office expects to allocate around $300 million over five years, with individual awards up to $100 million, according to a Feb. 1 notice of intent.
- The competition details will be announced on the Grants.gov website no later than March. The due date for concept papers will be about 35 days after the Notice of Funding Opportunity is published.
Dive Insight:
The development of organic materials and substrates is one of three R&D areas the National Institute of Standards and Technology identified that could have a significant impact on domestic advanced packaging capabilities, alongside glass materials and substrates and semiconductor-based substrates.
Applicants will be reviewed in part by their ability to shrink the size of the package features and scale out the number of chips assembled on the substrate, according to the notice.
The funded projects may include basic and applied research, substrate and demonstration device development and production, commercial viability and domestic manufacturing preparation, workforce education and pilot-level substrate production, according to the notice.
Eligible applicants include for-profit and nonprofit organizations, accredited educational institutions and government entities incorporated in the U.S. While co-investment isn’t obligatory, applications showing committed co-investment will receive preference.
The U.S. has been investing billions of dollars in research programs to keep up with advanced semiconductor technology. This includes artificial intelligence, biomedical devices and microelectronics capabilities, according to the notice.
The Biden administration has invested $11 billion overall in semiconductor packaging manufacturing, metrology R&D and a new national manufacturing institute focused on digital twins. There are four chip R&D initiatives in the CHIPS and Science Act, all of which fall under NIST. The initiatives are all connected, creating a path from R&D to the commercialization of emerging technologies stemming from the program.
The National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Programs will invest $3 billion in various chip packaging manufacturing programs as a resource for the open competition. The programs, announced in November 2023, include an advanced packaging piloting facility for validating and transitioning new technologies to U.S. manufacturers, as well as for funding new workforce training programs.
To centralize all these government R&D efforts, this month the White House announced $5 billion in funding to launch a National Semiconductor Technology Center as well as a national workforce center to train future talent this summer.
