The US Department of Commerce announced it will open competition for funding to conduct research in semiconductor advanced packaging. The R&D activities will be held under the CHIPS program, and will aim to establish and accelerate domestic capacity.

According to the Department’s Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), the budget should reach around $1.6 billion. Each award will receive nearly $150 million in funding. While co-investment will not be required, the program will give preference to applications that demonstrate credible co-investment commitments.

The NOFO states that proposals must consider some base roadmaps, including the iNEMI 5G/6G mmWave Materials and Electrical Test Technology Roadmap (5G/6G MAESTRO). It aims to create a foundation of knowledge and expertise in the US to support the development and manufacturing of leading-edge 5G and 6G products.

The funding will focus on five areas:

• Scale-down and Scale-out: Applicants should consider in their planning activities interdisciplinary approaches that contribute to scaling-down and scaling-out in advanced packaging.
• Heterogeneous Integration, including chiplets: Applicants should incorporate considerations for heterogeneous integration and chiplets-based architectures in their research planning.
• End-to-End Advanced Packaging Flows: To address this driver, applicants should plan for implementing their research outputs in a full packaging flow.
• Prototypes for Demonstrating Functionality: The budget is expected to support projects to design prototypes in application areas such as high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, and low-power systems.
• Aligned R&D efforts for Implementable Advanced Packaging Flows: Successful applicants should expect to participate in coordination and information-sharing across projects in all R&D areas. The NOFO should include provisions for coordination and cooperation activities connecting all of the R&D projects.

In addition to these areas, the NOFO is expected to include a specific opportunity for prototype development. It will likely focus on fields such as high-performance computing and low-power systems needed for AI.

Once the open competition has been announced, further information may be found on the CHIPS website. However, the Department of Commerce encourages potential applicants to register with the System for Award Management and create a Grants.gov account in advance. Both steps are required to submit concept papers and full applications for Federal assistance.