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The purpose of the CHIPS Research and Development (R&D) programs is to advance the development of semiconductor technologies and to enhance the competitiveness of the U.S. semiconductor industry. The CHIPS R&D programs have three goals:
Establish the capacity to invent, develop, prototype, and deploy the foundational semiconductor technologies of the future – here in America.
Accelerate ideas to market. We want the best ideas to achieve commercial scale as quickly and cost effectively as possible, and
Contribute to a robust semiconductor workforce. We want enough inventors, designers, researchers, developers, engineers, technicians, and staff to meet the needs of government and commercial sectors.
The CHIPS R&D programs address five cross-cutting issues that we identified through interactions with stakeholders:
Access to facilities and equipment for late-stage R&D and prototyping
To address these semiconductor R&D ecosystem gaps, CHIPS for America invests $11 billion in four integrated entities, all of which include some aspect of workforce training. These programs will share infrastructure, participants, and projects. They will operate in coordination with each other, with the CHIPS Incentives Program, and with microelectronics R&D programs supported by other U.S. federal agencies. CHIPS R&D programs will be informed by industry’s needs, and innovations from the R&D programs will accelerate innovation and increase competitiveness in the American semiconductor industry and establish our leadership in the sector for decades to come.
The NIST Nanofabrication Facility in an ultraclean wing of the Advanced Measurement Laboratory.
Credit:
Courtesy HDR Architecture, Inc./Steve Hall © Hedrich Blessing
CHIPS National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program– The U.S. needs to develop the capability to package chips together in multiple dimensions with a variety of functions—known as advanced packaging—to regain and maintain leadership in semiconductor manufacturing. The NAPMP and NSTC will work closely together. Learn more about the NAPMP vision.
CHIPS Manufacturing USA Institute – CHIPS for America is funding a new Manufacturing USA institute, known as SMART USA (Semiconductor Manufacturing and Advanced Research with Twins USA), dedicated to digital twin technology for semiconductor manufacturing technologies and related workforce training. Learn more about the institute.
CHIPS Metrology – NIST will conduct the measurement science, or metrology, critical to the development of new materials, packaging, and production methods for semiconductors. NIST will also work on reference materials, reference data, and calibrations for the precision equipment used in chip manufacturing, and advise on the development of standards for processes and cybersecurity.
Across the entire semiconductor industry, issues related to thermomechanical mismatches encountered during packaging are limiting factors in the design and fabrication of 3D modular integrated circuits. This project will develop novel and necessary metrologies for thermomechanical properties of
Advanced packaging involves increasingly challenging requirements for heterogeneous integration and chiplet packaging. Needs such as fine pitch interconnects
Continuous advances in the performance and functionality of semiconductor devices have been driven by scale reduction, incorporation of new and nanomaterials, and by heterogeneous integration (HI). However, such scaling and integrated architecture has rendered existing thermal metrology inadequate
Conventional TEM imaging was sufficient for decades in the semiconductor industry, but its utility is declining as device designs become more complex and as feature sizes continue to shrink. Conventional imaging modes are challenged by the small, complex structures which are vital to current and