The White House announced that the DoD – through the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division, and the National Security Technology Accelerator (NSTXL) – announced it awarded the first round of technical projects through Microelectronics Commons. A total of 33 projects have been awarded across the eight Hubs, such as investments in a cross-hub-led Electronic Design Automation (EDA) solution that offers democratized access to several design tools, including Cadence, Synopsys, Siemens, Keysight, and Ansys tools supported by Nimbus and Microsoft cloud with other tools identified at a project level. This puts the awarded total at nearly $269 million.
This is the first time over 30 Lab-to-Fab prototype projects have been awarded simultaneously through the Strategic and Spectrum Missions Advanced Resilient Trusted Systems (S2MARTS) Other Transaction Authority (OTA).
The eight Microelectronics Commons Hubs – awarded about a year ago under the CHIPS and Science Act – will lead these efforts in collaboration with their awarded Hub members.
The projects awarded will support prototype projects across 6 technical areas critical to the DoD mission: Secure Edge/Internet of Things Computing (4 awards), 5G/6G Technology (5 awards), Artificial Intelligence Hardware (7 awards), Quantum Technology (4 awards), Electromagnetic Warfare (6 awards), and Commercial Leap Ahead (7 awards).
The Microelectronics Commons program established 8 innovation Hubs last year after Congress passed the CHIPS and Science Act to strengthen American manufacturing, supply chains, and national security. And by investing in this network of 8 regional prototyping Hubs with a focus in 6 main technical areas – 5G/6G, AI Hardware, Commercial Leap-Ahead, Electromagnetic Warfare, Secure Edge/IoT Computing and Quantum Technology – the United States is safeguarding critical microelectronics supply chain. The Microelectronics Commons was awarded through the Strategic & Spectrum Missions Advanced Resilient Trusted Systems (S²MARTS) OTA, launched by the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division and managed by NSTXL.
The 8 Hubs are Silicon Crossroads Microelectronics Commons (SCMC) Hub; Southwest Advanced Prototyping (SWAP) Hub; California-Pacific-Northwest AI Hardware Hub (Northwest-AI-Hub); Northeast Microelectronics Coalition (NEMC) Hub; The Midwest Microelectronics Consortium (MMEC); Commercial Leap Ahead for Wide-bandgap Semiconductors (CLAWS); Northeast Regional Defense Technology Hub (NORDTECH); and California Defense Ready Electronics and Microdevices Superhub (California DREAMS).
Microelectronics Commons has opened registration for their second Annual Meeting which will be held in conjunction with the NSTC Symposium, where government, industry, and academia will explore one year of achievements and discuss the path forward. The registration closes on October 15 at 6PM ET.
KEY QUOTES:
“The first round of technical project awards under the Microelectronics Commons marks a significant milestone in DoD’s implementation of the CHIPS and Science Act. We look forward to expediting Lab-to-Fab prototyping of leading-edge microelectronics hardware in the coming months and years, as these efforts move us towards domestic prototyping capabilities in the U.S.”
-Dr. Dev Shenoy, Principal Director for Microelectronics, OUSD (R&E)/ASD(CT)
“It’s an exciting time for Microelectronics Commons with the first round of official awards made to the eight Hubs. The 33 project awards respond to a wide range of critical DoD technical areas, and each Hub is specifically equipped to respond to that call. We are confident that the Hubs will hit the ground running and look forward to their progress.”
-Dr. Angie Lewis, NSWC Crane Technical Director
“It’s great to see the progress with Commons as it relates to these 33 official awards just a few short weeks before the second annual meeting coming up in October. The awards mark another significant milestone in the Commons mission to onshore domestic production capabilities, and we look forward to partnering with the eight regional Hubs in these efforts.”
-Dr. Tim Morgan, Microelectronics Commons Technical Director
“It’s energizing to see the execution of CHIPS and Science Act dollars establishing the first set of projects that will demonstrate the Microelectronics Commons Hubs’ lab-to-fab prototyping capabilities and infrastructure investments.”
-Stephanie Lin, Vice President at NSTXL for Microelectronics Commons
