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For the U.S. semiconductor industry to flourish in the long-term, its materials and manufacturing practices must be sustainable in both protecting the environment and communities and in producing innovative new technologies. Increasing sustainability in semiconductor materials and manufacturing requires a new, holistic approach to accelerating the “lab-to-fab" transition: Sustainability becomes an intentional, co-optimization factor for next generation semiconductor materials and manufacturing. CHIPS for America – with its programs spanning manufacturing incentives and multiple areas of research and development – is uniquely positioned to work with stakeholders across the 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 in high-impact semiconductor R&D and to grow the semiconductor research talent.
On Wednesday, September 18, the CHIPS for America R&D Office will host a hybrid Workshop on Accelerating R&D for Sustainable Semiconductor Materials focused on increasing sustainability in semiconductor manufacturing materials. The workshop will include opening remarks from Under Secretary Locascio, Director of NIST and the Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology, and Arati Prabhakar, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and Assistant to the President for Science and Technology. Their remarks will be followed by a moderated discussion with experts on sustainability opportunities, a listening session from Natcast that focuses on a sub-set of possible topics related to PFAS research, and breakout sessions on sustainable semiconductor materials discovery and deployment via artificial intelligence-powered autonomous experimentation (AI/AE). On Thursday, September 19, there will also be limited virtual one-on-one meetings with CHIPS staff.
Background: AI/AE for Sustainable Semiconductor Materials
The accelerated discovery and validation of new materials can drive significant benefits to national and economic security, both by enabling new semiconductor technologies and by promoting domestic semiconductor manufacturing. Innovative new tools will be required to enable co-optimization of semiconductor performance metrics — such as power, performance, area, and cost with sustainability factors such as energy efficiency, health impacts, and waste reduction — while improving the competitiveness of the final manufactured product. Investing in these tools and techniques will enable the design of new materials, devices, and products that protect people, including workers, and the planet, while increasing the domestic manufacturability of high-performance semiconductors.
At a White House event on June 13, 2024, U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Raimondo announced her intention to invest approximately $100 million in artificial intelligence-driven materials and manufacturing research, semiconductor-related autonomous systems, and increasing the capability of university labs to participate in this work. This research – autonomous experimentation (AE) of materials for the semiconductor industry – generally requires access to (1) a combination of specialized and generalized automated laboratory devices for materials handling, (2) software for data analysis, and (3) machine learning tools to predict material properties and help plan further experiments. Accessing this combination of capabilities will likely require multiple organizations operating in partnership, including across universities, industry, and national labs.
To better understand what organizations and facilities would most likely be able to participate in AI-enabled materials research, including with federal support, a significant portion of the Semiconductor Sustainability Workshop will be dedicated to this topic, with multiple virtual engagement sessions, and a series of one-on-one virtual discussions designed to address key questions such as:
- How can CHIPS R&D enable new university-led, artificial intelligence-powered autonomous experimentation (AI/AE) into sustainable materials;
- What is the potential role of emerging research institutions as well as partners at other universities, in industry, and in government to advance AI/AE;
- What existing or envisioned facilities, scientific tools, and talent can be brought to bear; and
- Which performance and sustainability metrics would have the greatest positive impact on the domestic manufacturing ecosystem.
Registration Information
Click here to register.
Due to space limitations, in-person participation in the opening session will be extremely limited. CHIPS R&D will live-stream the opening session to registered workshop participants and later post a recording to chips.gov.
Breakout sessions will not be recorded, but learnings may be shared with the community without attribution.
CHIPS R&D particularly encourages participation from emerging research institutions with developing capabilities in AI/AE, major research universities and government labs with existing capabilities in these fields, industry groups involved in the use and development of semiconductor materials, and civil society organizations with an interest in domestic manufacturing.