$300m federal boost for semiconductor packaging advances in the US

The Biden-Harris Administration is looking to invest up to $300m in advanced packaging research projects in Georgia, California, and Arizona to help develop technologies essential for the semiconductor market.

Absolics in Georgia, Applied Materials in California, and Arizona State University are set to benefit if the negotiations are successful. Each recipient will receive up to $100m of the competitively awarded research investments.

Up to $300m in federal funding will be paired with additional investments from the private sector, bringing the expected total investment for the projects to over $470m.

Advanced packaging relies on advanced substrates, allowing high-performance computing for AI, next-gen wireless communication, and efficient power electronics. These substrates are not yet produced in the US, but the proposed investment will help US manufacturers stay competitive.

US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said that the key to the US’s long-term competitiveness hinges on its ability to out-innovate and out-build the rest of the world.

“Emerging technology like AI requires cutting-edge advances in microelectronics, including advanced packaging. Through these proposed investments, we are positioning the US as a global leader in designing, manufacturing, and packaging the microelectronics that will fuel tomorrow’s innovation.”

Absolics plans to use the capital to support glass core substrate panel manufacturing by developing new capabilities in partnership with over 30 partners.

Applied Materials, along with a team of 10 collaborators, is working on developing and scaling a disruptive silicon-core substrate technology for next-generation advanced packaging and 3D heterogeneous integration.

Finally, Arizona State University is developing a next generation of microelectronics packaging through fan-out-wafer-level-processing (FOWLP). At the heart of this initiative is the Advanced Electronics and Photonics Core facility, where researchers are exploring the commercial viability of 300 mm wafer-level and 600 mm panel-level manufacturing, a technology not commercially available in the US today.

Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and National Institute of Standards and Technology Director Laurie E. Locascio, described advanced packaging as essential to the development of the advanced semiconductors that are the drivers of emerging technology like artificial intelligence.

“These first investments of the National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program will drive breakthroughs that address a critical need in the CHIPS for America’s mission to create a robust domestic packaging industry where advanced node chips manufactured in the US and abroad can be packaged within the US.”