ASU selected as home and partner for CHIPS Act

Arizona State University (ASU) has been selected as the home and partner for the CHIPS and Science Act-funded national lab for semiconductor advanced packaging.

On Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, the U.S. Commerce Department and the National Center for the Advancement of Semiconductor Technology (Natcast), the operator of the National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC), announced the selection of Arizona as the site of the co-located NSTC Prototyping and National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program’s (NAPMP) Advanced Packaging Piloting Facility. It is the third of three CHIPS for America research and development flagship facilities and the one with the largest financial investment.

Located at ASU Research Park in Tempe, the new facility will combine semiconductor research and prototyping for front-end manufacturing and packaging capabilities, meeting a unique need for advanced packaging R&D within the U.S. semiconductor ecosystem. The facility, which is part of the CHIPS for America initiative, which aims to strengthen the U.S. semiconductor supply chain and accelerate cutting-edge research and development, is expected to be operational as early as the fourth quarter of 2028, representing hundreds of new jobs and billions of dollars of investment.

Sally Morton, Ph.D., Executive Vice President of Knowledge Enterprise at ASU, joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss what this means to the ASU community.