The Department of Commerce is investing up to $300 million to accelerate the development of technologies to boost the semiconductor industry.
The department said Thursday the three entities receiving up to $100 million in federal funding each will conduct advanced packaging research projects meant to boost innovation in semiconductor research, development and manufacturing. The total funding for the three projects is expected to exceed $470 million after the addition of investments from the private sector.
Leveraging Advanced Substrates for Advanced Packaging
The investment support projects involving advanced substrates, considered as the basis for advanced packaging. These physical platforms enable the seamless assembly of semiconductor chips, high-bandwidth communication between those chips, efficient power delivery and dissipation of unwanted heat.
Proposed Advanced Packaging Research Projects
The recipients of the competitively awarded research investments are:
Absolics, a Covington, Georgia-based company focusing on developing glass core substrate panel manufacturing through its Substrate and Materials Advanced Research and Technology Packaging Program.
Applied Materials in Santa Clara, California leads a team of 10 in developing and scaling a disruptive silicon-core substrate technology. This will be utilized for advanced packaging and 3D heterogeneous integration.
Arizona State University in Tempe is working on utilizing fan-out-wafer-level-processing for microelectronics packaging.
“Emerging technology like AI requires cutting-edge advances in microelectronics, including advanced packaging,” said Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “Through these proposed investments, we are positioning the United States as a global leader in designing, manufacturing and packaging the microelectronics that will fuel tomorrow’s innovation.”
Laurie Locascio, under secretary of Commerce for standards and technology and director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, stated, “Advanced packaging is essential to the development of the advanced semiconductors that are the drivers of emerging technology like artificial intelligence.”
