ASU selected as Microelectronics Commons hub

ASU has been selected by the U.S. Department of Defense as a Microelectronics Commons hub. ASU is among eight hubs across the country.

Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks announced the award of $238 million in “Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) and Science Act” funding for the establishment of eight Microelectronics Commons regional innovation hubs. This is the largest award to date under President Biden’s CHIPS and Science Act.

Other schools selected for the award include:

• The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MassTech)
• The Applied Research Institute (ARI)
• The University of Southern California (USC)
• North Carolina State University (NCSU)
• MMEC
• The Research Foundation for the State University of New York (SUNY)
• The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University

With $2 billion in funding for fiscal years 2023 through 2027, the Microelectronics Commons program aims to leverage these hubs to accelerate domestic hardware prototyping and the “lab-to-fab” transition of semiconductor technologies. This will help mitigate supply chain risks and ultimately expedite access to the most cutting-edge microchips for our troops.

Kyle Squires, Ph.D., Dean of Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at ASU, joined Arizona Horizon to talk more about the hub.

“The key goals for our hub will be to accelerate the rate at which discoveries, ideas that come from the lab, are prototyped,” Dean Squires said. “This hub is a physical place, but a network of partners that gives us competitive advantage and competing for projects to advance the DoD mission about prototyping.”

Dean Squires says that there will be many positive impacts on the local economy from the hub.

“Aerospace and defense is a leading industry within the state, it will stimulate that base but also grow the economy, new startups that are here will make the economy more competitive,” Dean Squires said.