The Biden administration released its vision this week to boost U.S. semiconductor capabilities, announcing a $3 billion program to advance packaging – a key technology for manufacturing semiconductors, or chips.
The Department of Commerce’s CHIPS for America program announced on Nov. 20 that it is committing about $3 billion in funding through the National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program, which will be used to drive U.S. leadership in advanced packaging.
An initial funding opportunity for the program is expected to be announced early next year.
“Making substantial investments in domestic packaging capabilities and R&D is critical to creating a thriving semiconductor ecosystem in America,” said Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “We need to make sure new leading-edge chip architectures can be invented in our research labs, designed for every end-use application, manufactured at scale, and packaged with the most advanced technologies.”
“This new vision for advanced packaging will enable us to implement President Biden’s Investing in America agenda and make our country a leader in leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing,” she added.
CHIPS for America published “The Vision for the National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program” on Monday, which details the vision, mission, and objectives for the advanced packaging program created by the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act.
In August 2022, President Biden signed into law the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, which includes nearly $280 billion in new funding investments for domestic semiconductor research and manufacturing.
Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and National Institute of Standards and Technology Director Laurie Locascio first announced the packaging program during remarks at Morgan State University on Monday.
Locascio explained that today, the value of chips comes not just from the chips themselves, but how they are connected to other chips.
Advanced packaging is a manufacturing method that combines a variety of chips with a range of functions into an interconnected two- or three-dimensional “package.” This can help the semiconductor sector to achieve enhanced functionality and performance, all at a lower cost and with smaller, denser dimensions.
“Because of the role advanced packaging will play in assembling chips for many applications with growing demand, we must have the capability to package those chips here,” Locascio said. “Fabricating chips in America but shipping them overseas to be packaged creates supply chain and national security risks we cannot accept.”
“That is why we envision that, by the end of the decade, the United States will be home to multiple high-volume advanced packaging facilities and a global leader in commercial-scale advanced packaging for the most sophisticated chips,” she continued.
Locasio said the $3 billion investment will span across six focus areas, including technology investments in both materials and substrates; equipment, tools, and processes; power delivery and thermal management; photonics and connectors; a chip ecosystem; and co-design for the chips that can improve yield, performance, reliability, and cost in advanced packaging.
“The National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program will work closely with all of CHIPS for America’s R&D programs like the National Semiconductor Technology Center, as well as with our partner Federal agencies,” said CHIPS Research and Development Director Lora Weiss. “Together, these powerhouse research programs will support technology innovation so advanced that semiconductor manufacturers will choose to invest in America and our onshore packaging capabilities.”
