NextFlex News – July 2024

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

As most of you know, NextFlex and its member partners submitted a concept paper to the NAPMP Materials & Substrates NOFO in May. Out of more than 100 concept papers, NextFlex was one of eight teams that were selected to submit a full proposal, which we did earlier this month. While we await a response, we were just notified that the CHIPS office will visit NextFlex for a Pre-Selection Interview and Site Visit next week. An evaluation panel from the Materials and Substrates team will ask clarifying questions about the NextFlex proposal and tour the Technology Hub with the goal of gaining greater understanding of our (and our members) specific capabilities and program plans. We are pleased and honored to be part of this process and are optimistic that we are one step closer to a positive outcome.

Last week we were notified of a new Notice of Intent (NOI) for a competition for new research and development activities to establish and accelerate U.S. semiconductor manufacturing capacity specifically in advanced packaging. We are tracking this closely because it relates to our NAPMP proposal. The CHIPS program plans to award up to $1.6B across these five R&D Areas:

• Equipment, tools, processes, and process integration;
• Power delivery and thermal management;
• Connector technology, including photonics and RF;
• Chiplets ecosystem; and
• Co-design/electronic design automation (EDA)

These investments will drive domestic advanced packaging capabilities and support the transfer of innovations into full-scale manufacturing while bolstering education and workforce development efforts simultaneously. In addition, Natcast, the operator of the National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC) announced how it will select the first three R&D facilities funded through the CHIPS and Science Act. These facilities include a NSTC Prototyping and NAPMP Advanced Packaging Piloting Facility, a NSTC Administrative and Design Facility, and a NSTC Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) Center. When operational, these three facilities will establish world-class R&D centers in the U.S. that will address critical gaps in the current ecosystem. We are excited to see these opportunities becoming real, particularly since we heard several of our speakers at Innovation Days last March allude to these forthcoming announcements.

Finally, we were pleased to host a group from SEMI Japan who were in the Bay Area to attend the FLEX conference and SEMICON West. Representatives from Fujikura Kasei, Elephantech, and Murata Manufacturing, along with SEMI staff from Japan and Singapore, (at left) toured the Technology Hub and met with our engineering team. We enjoy visitors, so if you plan to be in the area, let us know if you’d like to stop in for a tour.

Sincerely,

Art Wall, Ph.D.
NextFlex Director of Technology & Engineering and Co-Executive Director, Pro Tem