DoD will split funds from CHIPS Act between eight Innovation Hubs
NewsSeptember 25, 2023
WASHINGTON. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) announced that $238 million in funding from the “Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) and Science Act” (known as the CHIPS Act) will be divided between eight Microelectronics Commons so-called regional innovation hubs this year, marking the largest fund allocation to date under the U.S. government's CHIPS Act.
The Microelectronic Commons program is specifically aimed to bridge the gap between lab-based R&D and large-scale production, and is intended to play a major role in easing supply-chain risks in the area of microelectronics. The hubs are also tasked with developing educational pipelines and retraining initiatives in the area of microelectronics development and production.
More than 360 organizations from 30+ states will participate in the hub program:
- Northeast Microelectronics Coalition (NEMC) Hub, led by the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative
- Silicon Crossroads Microelectronics Commons (SCMC) Hub, led by The Applied Research Institute in Indiana
- California Defense Ready Electronics and Microdevices Superhub (California DREAMS), led by the University of Southern California
- Commercial Leap Ahead for Wide Bandgap Semiconductors (CLAWS) Hub, led by North Carolina State University
- Southwest Advanced Prototyping (SWAP) Hub, led by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of Arizona State University
- Midwest Microelectronics Consortium (MMEC) Hub in Ohio
- Northeast Regional Defense Technology Hub (NORDTECH), led by The Research Foundation for the State University of New York
- California-Pacific-Northwest AI Hardware Hub (Northwest-AI Hub), led by Stanford University
Each hub is intended to to become self-sufficient within five years, with the expectation that they will then contribute to the DoD's pursuit of mission-critical technologies.
