The Department of Commerce (DoC) announced on Tuesday that it is launching a competition with up to $1.6 billion in funding, authorized under the CHIPS and Science Act, to support research and development (R&D) activities for semiconductor advanced packaging.
The agency’s CHIPS for America program plans to make several awards of about $150 million each across five R&D areas. These areas include equipment, tools, processes, and process integration; power delivery and thermal management; connector technology; chiplets ecosystem; and co-design/electronic design automation.
In addition to these five R&D areas, the Commerce Department expects to include a specific opportunity for prototype development in areas such as “high-performance computing and low-power systems needed for AI,” according to the agency’s notice of intent.
“President Biden was clear that we need to build a vibrant domestic semiconductor ecosystem here in the U.S., and advanced packaging is a huge part of that,” said Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “Now, thanks to the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to investing in America, the U.S. will have multiple advanced packaging options across the country and push the envelope in new packaging technologies.”
“This announcement is just the most recent example of our commitment to investing in cutting edge R&D that is critical to creating quality jobs in the U.S. and making our country a leader in advanced semiconductor manufacturing,” added Raimondo.
Advanced packaging combines multiple semiconductor chips into a single electronic package – blurring the line between chip and package. This process offers numerous benefits such as protecting the chip, facilitating reliable inter-chip communication, increasing chip reuse, and potentially decreasing costs.
However, the vast majority of advanced packaging manufacturing currently takes place in Asia.
The new funding comes at a critical time to help expand the limited packaging capability within the United States. The grants are part of the DoC’s National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program – which the agency expects to receive about $3 billion in total funding.
“The National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program will enable a packaging sector within the United States that outpaces the world through innovation driven by robust R&D,” said Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Director Laurie Locascio.
“Within a decade, through R&D funded by CHIPS for America, we will create a domestic packaging industry where advanced node chips manufactured in the U.S. and abroad can be packaged within the United States and where innovative designs and architectures are enabled through leading-edge packaging capabilities,” Locascio said.
The Commerce Department said it will share more information on the competition in an upcoming webinar. Those interested can follow CHIPS.gov for updates.
