Eight Regional Hubs Selected to Produce Military Microelectronics
To bring in the most advanced microelectronics into the military to succeed against near-peer adversaries, the U.S. Department of Defense has selected eight regional hub areas that will fabricate semiconductors and related hardware. The effort is the first award under the 2022 Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors and Science Act, or CHIPS Act, and grants $238 million in funding in fiscal year 2023, to be spread across each so-called Microelectronics Commons (Commons) regional innovation hub in amounts ranging from $15 million to $40 million, said Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, speaking to the media today. The Office of the Undersecretary for Research and Engineering, led by Heidi Shyu, is leading the commons effort.
“I really appreciate the hard and fast work from Undersecretary Shyu and her team,” said Deputy Secretary Hicks. “The Microelectronics Commons is focused on bridging and accelerating from ‘lab to fab,’ the transition through that infamous ‘Valley of Death’ between research and development and production. Because while America is a world leader in the innovative research and design of microelectronics, we've lagged in the ability to prototype, manufacture and produce them at scale. That's what the CHIPS Act is meant to supercharge.”
The deputy secretary emphasized that the hubs would not be providing basic research. Instead, the stakeholders at each Commons hub, from academia, industry, small businesses, nonprofits and government, would fabricate to the military at scale.
“Consistent with our warfighter-centric approach, the Microelectronics Commons will get the most cutting-edge microchips into systems,” she said. “Every day our troops use ships, planes, tanks, long-range munitions, communications, sensors and much more across all domains.”
David Honey, deputy undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, who manages the effort, noted that the domestic microelectronics fabrication would specifically be geared to six technology areas: electromagnetic warfare; secure computing at the tactical edge and Internet of Things; autonomous systems, artificial intelligence and related hardware; 5G and 6G wireless technologies; quantum computing; and commercial leap-ahead technologies.
“While we are also facing uncertainty in our supply chains, the Commons model, with spokes reaching out across our nation, enables us to partner with industry and academia so that they can help lead us into the future by leveraging our partners’ strengths,” Honey said. “The Commons is positioned to be a vital driver of the goals set forth in the CHIPS Act.”
Out of 83 proposed hub locations, the department, with the help of the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane, Indiana, and the National Security Technology Accelerator, selected the eight Commons locations. The officials do not expect to select additional hubs at this time.
The eight locations include:
- The Northeast Microelectronics Coalition (NEMC) Hub in Massachusetts, with the hub lead as the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, awarded $19.7 million in FY23 with 90 hub members.
- The Silicon Crossroads Microelectronics Commons (SCMC) Hub in Indiana, with the Applied Research Institute as the hub lead, with $32.9 million awarded and 130 members.
- The California Defense Ready Electronics and Microdevices Superhub (California DREAMS) Hub, with the University of Southern California as the lead, with $26.9 million in FY23 funding and 16 members.
- The Commercial Leap Ahead for Wide Bandgap Semiconductors (CLAWS) Hub in North Carolina with North Carolina State University as the lead, with $39.4 million and 7 members.
- The Southwest Advanced Prototyping (SWAP) Hub to be based in Arizona, led by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of Arizona State University, with $39.8 million and 27 members.
- The Midwest Microelectronics Consortium (MMEC) Hub, headquartered in Ohio, with $24.3 million and 65 members.
- The Northeast Regional Defense Technology Hub (NORDTECH) in New York, led by the Research Foundation for the State University of New York, with $40.0 million and 51 members.
- The California-Pacific-Northwest AI Hardware Hub (Northwest-AI Hub) in northern California, led by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University, with $15.3 million and 44 members.
In addition, a senior defense official, speaking yesterday with reporters, explained that the needed microelectronics production would include emerging fabrication, non-silicon and advanced layering techniques. “If you look at what DARPA is investing at the moment, it is this notion of what's termed in the industry, 3D-heterogeneous integration for future chips,” the official stated. “It is the way where we push past Moore’s law, which was really focused on silicon advances year by year, and the way we get the next order of magnitude in improvements of performance of individual devices, through different types of materials, through chiplets and other types of combining designs.”
Lastly, more details about the hubs will be announced at the inaugural annual meeting of the Commons, scheduled for October 17-18 at the Pentagon, the officials said. In total, more than 360 organizations from 35 states will be participating in the Commons.
“The hubs are expected to spur economic growth across their respective regions and the economy at large,” Hicks said. “The hubs are charged with developing the physical, digital and human infrastructure needed to support future success in microelectronics research and development. This includes building education pipelines and retraining initiatives to ensure the United States has the talent pool needed to sustain these investments.”
The officials pointed interested industry officials to the Commons’ website and encouraged companies not yet selected for a hub to get involved, as there are still opportunities to work on specific projects. The officials will announce the project efforts in the future.
For more information, visit microelectronicscommons.org.
