The Department of Commerce will open a research and development competition — offering up to $1.6 billion in CHIPS and Science Act funding — to establish and spur domestic capacity for semiconductor advanced packaging, the agency announced Tuesday.
The notice mentioned an increased need to improve semiconductor advanced packaging.
In the past, the semiconductor industry has addressed chip performance needs by increasing the number and density of transistors on a chip, a process known as miniaturization.
“However, the previous pace of miniaturization, as expressed by Moore’s Law, is slowing and cannot alone provide the performance improvements needed for emerging microelectronics technologies,” according to the notice.
Emerging technologies like high performance computing and low power electronics, which are needed to drive artificial intelligence, are driving the push for innovation.
The funding will be split into multiple awards of up to $150 million with a performance period of up to 5 years per award, according to the notice.
Once the notice of funding is published, concept papers are due approximately 60 days after.
“Advanced packaging allows manufacturers to make improvements in all aspects of system performance and function and to shorten time to market,” the release stated.
The department mentioned how packaging can reduce physical footprint, lower power, decreased costs and increased chiplet reuse.
The funding focuses on five R&D areas, according to the notice:
- Equipment, tools, processes and process integration
- Power delivery and thermal management
- Connector technology, including photonics and radio frequency
- Chiplets ecosystem
- Co-design or electronic design automation
In addition to the R&D areas, the funding is expected to include opportunities for prototyping in areas such as high-performance computing and low-power systems needed for AI, the notice stated.
The new competition is a much higher price point than a similar CHIPS funding opportunity announced back in February when the White House unveiled $300 million for research and development projects related to semiconductor packaging.
The Biden administration has also been investing in semiconductor advanced packaging companies. In May, $75 million went to glass substrate manufacturer Absolics for its Covington, Georgia, facility to develop substrates for semiconductor advanced packaging.
Samsung also scored big, getting $6.4 billion in April for four different chip plant developments — one being a packaging plant in Taylor, Texas. The plant will manufacture 3D high-bandwidth memory and 2.5D packaging, key for AI applications.
