It has been almost two years since the CHIPS and Science Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Biden, and over the last several months numerous big-name chip firms have had projects approved for CHIPS funding, but there has been some concern that government funding help is not reaching across the entire U.S. semiconductor ecosystem.
For example, IPC, a trade organization for electronics manufacturers, has highlighted the lack of assistance for companies involved in processes and materials for the advanced packaging of semiconductors.
Help could be on the way, as the U.S. Department of Commerce in recent days issued a Notice of Intent (NOI) to open a $1.6 billion competition for new R&D activities that will establish and accelerate domestic capacity for semiconductor advanced packaging. The $1.6 billion in funding would deliver about $150 million per funding award to projects from across five R&D areas, as outlined in the vision for the National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program (NAPMP), which was issued last November by the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) CHIPS Research and Development Office.
Those five R&D areas include:
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Equipment, tools, processes, and process integration;
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Power delivery and thermal management;
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Connector technology, including photonics and radio frequency (RF);
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Chiplets ecosystem;
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and co-design/electronic design automation (EDA).
Reviewing the announcement of the NOI, Chris Mitchell, IPC vice president of global government relations, said in an email to Fierce Electronics, “This announcement is another important step in the right direction. The U.S. needs to continue to complement investments in silicon fabrication with investments in packaging given that packaging is increasingly the driver for advancements in performance, function, and security. As IPC has highlighted in research reports, the U.S. ecosystem for advanced packaging is weak, especially in integrated circuit substrate fabrication—a key building block to any semiconductor component."
Mitchell added, "Addressing this strategic vulnerability through meaningful investments in R&D brings the U.S. closer to the ultimate goal of building cutting-edge electronics from silicon to systems. IPC looks forward to continued collaboration with the Department of Commerce to realize the goals set out in the CHIPS Act and to catalyze a revitalization across the broader U.S. electronics manufacturing industry.”
In announcing the NOI, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo stated, “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. 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.”
The Commerce Dept. announcement of the NOI added, “Advanced packaging allows manufacturers to make improvements in all aspects of system performance and function and to shorten time to market. Additional benefits include a reduced physical footprint, lower power, decreased costs, as well as increased chiplet reuse. Achieving these goals requires coordinated investments to support integrated R&D activities to establish leading-edge domestic capacity for semiconductor advanced packaging.”
NIST Director Laurie E. Locascio also said in the statement, “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. 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.