The U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC) through the CHIPS and Science Act has opened a new competition for research and development (R&D) activities with $1.6 billion available across five different areas.
Under the CHIPS Act, about $150 million in federal funding will be available per award in each research area. These five R&D areas fall under the U.S. DoC’s National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing program:
- Equipment, tools, processes and process integration
- Power delivery and thermal management
- Connector technology, including photonics and radio frequency (RF)
- Chiplets ecosystem
- Co-design/electronic design automation (EDA)
Additionally, the funding opportunity is expected to include prospects for protype developments.
According to DoC, packaging capacity and R&D is higher in demand in the semiconductor sector due to the emerging artificial intelligence-driven applications. This includes microelectronic capabilities such as high-performance computing, low power electronics and advanced packaging.
Packaging advancements help all aspects of system performance and function to shorten time-to-market. Other benefits include:
- Reduced physical footprint
- Lower power
- Decreased costs
- Increased chiplet reuse
“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 Laurie E. Locascio director for the Standards and Technology and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). “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.”
