The Pentagon will award $269 million to 33 semiconductor research projects in the US. US news agency Bloomberg reported this news on Tuesday. The funding comes from the CHIPS and Science Act. The $52 billion program signed by US President Joseph Biden in 2022 aims to boost semiconductor manufacturing in the US. So far, most of them have been manufactured abroad, especially in Taiwan.
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As part of the CHIPS Act, the US Department of Defense was allocated $2 billion over five years for the so-called Microelectronics Commons program. The current million-dollar payment is the second payment of funds to strengthen semiconductor research for the US military. According to David Haney, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering at the Department of Defense, the Microelectronics Commons program aims to bridge “a critical gap” between laboratory and factory prototypes.
Eight hubs across the country established last year, now involving nearly 1,200 organizations in 27 states and Washington DC, will help implement the projects announced Tuesday. Bloomberg writes.So they will focus on technologies ranging from artificial intelligence (AI) to quantum computing.
Government research initiatives
The Microelectronics Commons is one of several US government semiconductor research initiatives launched last year. Just in July, the US Department of Commerce, which is responsible for most of the CHIPS Act funding, announced the selection process for three new government-funded chip research facilities. Shortly after, the Department of Defense announced its own prototyping initiative, independent of the CHIPS Act.
Even though the concerned ministries insist on close coordination between the projects to Bloomberg, a recently published report demands Report of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and MedicineThe paper, which the news agency referenced, calls on the US government to improve coordination between individual authorities and avoid duplicate structures. The researchers point in particular to four programs run by the Commerce and Defense departments; rather, the goal should be to create a national hub.
CHIPS and the Science Act
Semiconductor production has become a national security issue in the United States in recent years. Today, chips are found in almost every modern electronic device – from telephones, refrigerators and computers to the most modern weapons systems. But in recent years the United States has fallen behind China in chip production. According to the American daily Washington Post, in 1990 37 percent of the world’s chips were still manufactured in the United States, but today the United States’ share in production has fallen to around 12 percent. There are many reasons for the decline, but in Washington it is raising concerns about the country’s semiconductor supply chain.
Against the backdrop of rising geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty, the US government has launched a subsidy campaign. Trade disputes between the US and China have highlighted the risks of excessive dependence on foreign supply chains. Added to this are geopolitical tensions over Taiwan and the threat to supply chains. So the United States has launched a billion-dollar funding program to boost US semiconductor production with the Chips and Science Act mentioned at the beginning, which also benefits the Pentagon.
(AKN)
