Administration to Invest up to $100M for R&D and AI Technologies for Sustainable Semiconductor Materials

The U.S. Department of Commerce recentlyi 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.

“Right now, new semiconductor materials often take years to be production-ready and are incredibly resource-intensive. If we’re going to quickly build up America’s semiconductor manufacturing base, in a way that’s sustainable over the long term in the face of increasing threats from the climate crisis, we need to leverage AI to help develop sustainable material processes quickly. With this new program, the Biden-Harris Administration will harness the vast capabilities of AI to unleash the full potential of our workers and innovators, while building a more secure and enduring domestic semiconductor industry,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.

“President Biden says our nation can be defined in a single word: Possibilities. Using AI to accelerate the extensive, intricate work of developing sustainable materials for this incredibly complicated product is a great example of American ingenuity,” said Arati Prabhakar, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. “This is how CHIPS research and development will help manufacturers continue to succeed and thrive here at home.”

AI/AE has emerged as a potentially game-changing approach to accelerating materials research and development. AI/AE combines automated synthesis and characterization tools with an AI “planner” to determine the next round of an experimental campaign, vastly accelerating the design of new materials and the acquisition of materials data. In enabling federated research across multiple locations, AI/AE can create opportunities for collaborations across established research universities, emerging research institutions, industry, and national laboratories.

CHIPS for America – with its programs spanning manufacturing incentives and multiple areas of research and development – is uniquely positioned to work with stakeholders across federal, state, and local government, industry, academia and research institutions, labor unions, and environmental groups to investigate, commercialize, and advance solutions in this space. Addressing sustainability challenges also presents an opportunity to better engage universities, including emerging research institutions, to conduct high-impact semiconductor R&D and to grow semiconductor research talent.

“We have a unique opportunity to make the United States a world leader in efficient, safe, high-volume, and competitive semiconductor manufacturing,” said Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Director Laurie E. Locascio. “This CHIPS for America funding opportunity will help bring about sustainable manufacturing processes and materials to meet increasing demands for sustainability and safe working environments in perhaps as few as five years.”

Through this anticipated funding opportunity, CHIPS for America will support the sustainability of the U.S. semiconductor industry while recognizing the ongoing demand for improving microelectronics power, performance, area, and cost metrics. The competition will also aim to expand the participation of universities, including emerging research institutions, and their graduates in the semiconductor research and development (R&D) ecosystem. The notice of funding opportunity is expected to be released later this year.

More information about CHIPS for America’s environmental work can be found here. Follow CHIPS.gov for updates.