Defense Microelectronics Industrial Base

Semiconductor microelectronic chips are critical components in defense C4ISR and weapon systems. Department of Defense (DoD) needs to have an assured supply of advanced microcroelectronic chips, in peacetime and wartime. Since DoD itself normally does not make the chips, DoD depends on the semiconductor industry to produce the needed chips. DoD uses a variety of chips, many are commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) and some are classified and defense-unique chips. The semiconductor industry, although originally created by DoD, for several decades has gradually moved off-shore, including fabrication, testing, and packaging. The U.S. market share of global semiconductor manufacturing capacity has fallen from about 38% in 1990 to 12% in 2020. TSMC in Taiwan is the world’s largest semiconductor chip manufacturer, supplying 92% of worlds sub-nanometer advanced chips. To bring semiconductor manufacturing back to the U.S., Congress passed the CHIPS and Science Act to reshore semiconductor manufacturing to the U.S. The CHIPS Act authorizes more than $200B, and immediately appropriates $53.7B, in federal funding to promote domestic semiconductor manufacturing production, DoD allocated $2B as a part of the CHIPS Act. DoD's Microelectronics Commons initiative selected eight regional innovations hubs that include a large number of members in the industrial base. The objective of these hubs, called “lab to fab”, is to speed up the transition of microelectronics from research to prototyping to production, and is focused on strengthening the defense microelectronics industrial base.
Speaker(s): Dr. Clifford Lau,
Room: Conference Room, Bldg: Patrick Henry Library (Vienna), 101 Maple Ave E., Enter through the Conference Room door (to the right of the main entrance as you face the building), Vienna, Virginia, United States, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/376101