NSTC Membership Opened 

On September 30th, Natcast, the purpose-built, non-profit operator of the National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC), announced the official launch of the NSTC Membership Program. A historic and long-lasting investment, the NSTC will bolster the U.S. semiconductor industry with a focus on innovation, collaboration, and education. This announcement marks a significant milestone in U.S. efforts to advance its competitive edge in semiconductor leadership. 

“CHIPS for America is closing the gap between invention and commercialization, ushering in a new technological revolution for the semiconductor ecosystem. The NSTC represents the foundation for the next wave of technological breakthroughs, serving as the anchor institution where we shape the future of semiconductor innovation. With unprecedented collaboration between industry, academia, labor organizations, and government, members of the NSTC will help to secure America’s leadership in global semiconductor technology,” said Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo

On October 2nd , the U.S. Department of Commerce issued a Notice of Intent (NOI) to announce an open competition demonstrating how AI can assist in developing new sustainable semiconductor materials and processes that meet industry needs and can be designed and adopted within five years. For the U.S. semiconductor industry to flourish in the long-term, it must be able to develop innovative and commercially competitive technologies to sustainably produce materials and manufacture chips in a way that protects the environment and local communities. 

To accomplish this, CHIPS for America anticipates up to $100 million in funding to award recipients that develop university-led, industry-informed, collaborations about artificial intelligence-powered autonomous experimentation (AI/AE) relevant to sustainable semiconductor manufacturing. The full text of the NOI can be found here.

Today, CHIPS for America announced a new $5 million Entrepreneurial Fellowship Pilot Program, funded by the Biden-Harris Administration’s CHIPS and Science Act, to support up to 10 early-stage companies focused on innovations in semiconductor manufacturing technologies.   

The application portal for the Pilot Program can be found here: https://www.activate.org/apply. Applications for the 2025 Cohort will close on October 23, 2024. The first cohort of CHIPS R&D Entrepreneurial Fellows are expected to be selected in spring 2025. 

Consistent with the CHIPS R&D objectives of accelerating the development and commercial deployment of foundational semiconductor technologies, the Pilot will allow Fellows to develop their technologies and business operations while identifying the commercial strategies and manufacturing scale-up opportunities needed for sustained domestic production. 

CHIPS R&D will oversee the Pilot in collaboration with Activate.org, a nonprofit organization that launched the entrepreneurial fellowship model at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and has partnered with other Federal agencies. Interested parties must apply through Activate.  

In bringing the fellowship model to CHIPS for America, CHIPS R&D aims to demonstrate the potential for future entrepreneurial fellowships in support of programs such as the National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC), CHIPS National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program (NAPMP), CHIPS Manufacturing USA Program, and CHIPS Metrology Program. 

Today, CHIPS for America announced a new Chair and Vice Chair along with five new members to the Industrial Advisory Committee (IAC). The IAC and its three working groups – which focus on understanding the long-term research and development needs of the semiconductor industry, workforce needs across the industry, and the organizational ecosystem and how public-private partnerships can bring the most value to this ecosystem – provide guidance to the Secretary of Commerce in support of achieving CHIPS for America’s ambitious R&D goals. 

We are pleased to have these esteemed IAC members return for a second term: 

• Ken Joyce, Executive Vice President, Brewer Science 

• Tsu-Jae King Liu, Dean of the College of Engineering, UC Berkeley 

• Meredith LaBeau, CTO, Calumet Electronics 

• Omkaram Nalamasu, Senior Vice President and CTO, Applied Materials 

• Willy Shih, Economist, Harvard Business School 

We are also excited to welcome new members to the IAC: 

• Dr. Javaune Adams-Gaston, President of Norfolk State University and a nationally recognized higher education leader. 

• Tom Beckley, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Custom Integrated Circuit (IC) and Printed Circuit Board Group of Cadence.  

• Melissa Grupen-Shemansky, Chief Technology Officer and VP of Technology Communities at SEMI.  

• Jodi Forlizzi, Herbert A. Simon Professor in Computer Science at the Carnegie Mellon University Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Institute and the Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the School of Computer Science.  

• Dr. Martin Schmidt, President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and the previous Provost and Director of the Microsystem Technology Laboratories at MIT.  

NIST wishes to thank Dr. Michael Fritze for his outstanding contributions to the IAC's work. Dr. Fritze was among the first appointees to the IAC in September 2022. His term ended on October 1, 2024. 

Fed Scoop: CHIPS office eyes $100 million competition focused on manufacturing and AI 

In the race to build more chips domestically, NIST is eyeing AI-powered autonomous experimentation for production. 

[Rebecca Heilweil, 10/2/24] 

The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s CHIPS Research and Development Office plans to initiate competition with up to $100 million in funding focused on the sustainable manufacturing of semiconductor chips and artificial intelligence, according to a posting to the Federal Register published Wednesday.  

The upcoming Notice of Funding Opportunity is meant to boost support for new materials in chip manufacturing and comes as the Biden administration continues to invest in the domestic tech industry. The effort will focus on improving the performance of new chips and increasing the quantity of chips that can be manufactured, as well as on addressing issues with energy and water efficiency and other environmental concerns raised by chip manufacturing.  

There is a particular emphasis on artificial intelligence-powered autonomous experimentation, or AI/AE, an approach meant to accelerate the design and construction of new chip manufacturing technologies. The hope is to work against typically slow development timelines in the chip industry, which stand to hamper American semiconductor industrial policy goals.  

EE Times: CHIPS Act Spurs Childcare Collaboration  

[Gary Hilson, 10/2/2024] 

Childcare gaps have emerged as a barrier to bolstering the semiconductor industry workforce in the U.S. As a result, the SEMI Foundation and Policy Equity Group is looking to help companies collaborate to meet childcare requirements under the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act. 

The organizations are looking to work with early childhood education leaders in Arizona, Ohio, and Michigan to strengthen local childcare systems, support employers in creating childcare benefits that meet employee needs, and increase access to high-quality, affordable childcare. The communities are home to America’s growing semiconductor workforce. 

With funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, activities will include assessing the current state of the semiconductor workforce and the local early childcare and education system, creating childcare plans that meet CHIPS Act requirements and address the needs of the industry, and developing strategies that can inform replication and scaling of childcare plans across other communities. 

Last week, the Biden-Harris Administration announced the launch of the National Semiconductor Technology Center’s (NSTC) Workforce Center of Excellence (WCoE), making a decisive step toward solving one of the most pressing challenges facing the U.S. semiconductor industry – workforce development. As the world experiences an unprecedented demand for advanced semiconductors, America’s determination to remain a global leader in this critical technology hinges on maintaining a highly skilled and adaptable workforce. In doing so, they will build on the Administration’s existing work to connect Americans to good-paying jobs created by the President’s Investing in America agenda—including launching nine workforce hubs across the country.  

The Department of Commerce’s expected $250 million investment into the WCoE over ten years will advance President Biden and Vice President Harris’s goals of driving innovation in the United States and supporting workers in securing good-paying semiconductor jobs. 

On Thursday, October 10, 2024 at 2:00pm ET, Natcast is hosting a webinar to delve into various components of the newly launch WCoE. Registration closes on Wednesday, October 9, 2024, at 5:00pm ET. 

Registration is now open for the 2024 National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC) Symposium and Microelectronics Commons Annual Meeting, which will feature three days of programming from U.S. microelectronics leaders from industry, academia, and government, including the Department of Commerce and the Department of Defense. Both events will offer exclusive insight into the achievements made through the CHIPS and Science Act to date and how the nation is being mobilized to establish collaboration-based infrastructure to revitalize U.S. microelectronics technological advancement, onshoring efforts, and workforce development. 

When: October 28-30, 2024 

Where: Omni Shoreham Hotel, Washington, D.C. 

Registration Deadline: October 15, 2024, at 6:00 p.m. ET.