MIT and Lincoln Laboratory are participating in four microelectronics proposals selected for funding at the Northeast Microelectronics Coalition Center (NEMC). The funding comes from the Microelectronics Commons, a $2 billion CHIPS and Science Act initiative to strengthen US leadership in semiconductor manufacturing and innovation. The regional awards are among 33 projects announced as part of a $269 million federal investment.
Officials from the US Department of Defense (DoD) and the White House announced the awards during an event on September 18, hosted by the NEMC Center at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. The NEMC Hub, a division of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, leads a network of more than 200 member organizations across the region to enable the lab-to-factory transition of critical microelectronics technologies for the DoD. The NEMC Hub is one of eight regional centers that form a nationwide chip network under the Microelectronics Commons and is run through the Crane Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center and National Security Technology Accelerator (NSTXL).
“The $38 million in project awards to the NEMC Hub is a recognition of the skill, capacity and commitment of our members,” said Mark Halfman, director of the NEMC Hub. “We have a tremendous opportunity to grow lab-to-factory microelectronics capabilities across the Northeast region and drive the growth of game-changing technologies.”
“We are very pleased that Lincoln Laboratory is a central part of the vibrant ecosystem that has formed under the Microelectronics Commons program,” said Mark Gouker, assistant head of the laboratory’s Advanced Technology Division and representative of the NEMC Hub advisory group. “We have built strong relationships with academia, startups, DoD contractors, and commercial sector companies through collaborations with our technical staff and by providing our microelectronics fabrication infrastructure to assist with these projects. We believe this ecosystem most tight will be important to future Microelectronics Commons programs as well as other CHIPS and Science Act programs.”
The nearly $38 million award for the NEMC Hub is expected to support six collaborative projects, four of which will involve MIT and/or Lincoln Laboratory.
“These projects promise significant gains in advanced microelectronics technologies,” said Ian A. Waitz, MIT’s vice president for research. “We look forward to working together with industry and government organizations at the NEMC Center to strengthen American microelectronics innovation, workforce and education, and lab-to-factory translation.”
Projects selected for funding support key technology areas identified in the federal call for competitive proposals. MIT campus researchers will participate in a project advancing commercial breakthrough technologies, titled “Advancing DoD High Power Systems: Transition of High AlGaN% from Lab to Fab,” and another in the field of 5G/6G, called “Wideband, Scalable MIMO Arrays for NextG Systems: From Antennas to Decoders.”
Researchers at both Lincoln Laboratory and the campus will contribute to a quantum technology project called “Community-Driven Hybrid Integrated Quantum-Photonic Integrated Circuits (CHIQPI).”
Lincoln Laboratory researchers will also participate in the project “The same frequency broadband STAR array platform based on heterogeneous multi-domain self-interference cancellation”.
The anticipated funding for these four projects follows a $7.7 million grant awarded earlier this year to MIT by the NEMC Hub, along with an agreement between MIT and Applied Materials, to add advanced nanofabrication equipment and capabilities to MIT .nano.
The funding comes amid construction of the Semiconductor Laboratory – Microsystem Integration Facility (CSL-MIF) at Lincoln Laboratory. CSL-MIF will complement Lincoln Laboratory’s existing Microelectronics Laboratory, which for decades has remained the US government’s most advanced silicon-based research and fabrication facility. When completed in 2028, CSL-MIF is expected to play a vital role in the larger CHIPS and Science Act ecosystem.
“Lincoln Laboratory has a long history of developing advanced microelectronics to enable critical national security systems,” said Melissa Choi, director of Lincoln Laboratory. “We are excited to launch these award-winning projects, leveraging our microelectronics facilities and collaborating with other center members to be at the forefront of American microelectronics innovation.”
Officials who spoke at the Sept. 18 event emphasized the national security and economic imperatives for building a strong microelectronics workforce and innovation network.
“The Microelectronics Commons is an essential part of the CHIPS and Science Act’s whole-of-government approach to strengthening the US microelectronics ecosystem and providing sustainable technical leadership in this critical sector,” said Dev Shenoy, principal director for microelectronics at Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. “I believe in the tremendous impact this work will have on American economies, American defense and the American people.”
“The secret sauce of what made the US the world’s leading innovator for the last 100 years was the coming together of the US government and the public sector, together with the private sector and coming together with academia and research,” said Amos Hochstein. , special presidential coordinator for global infrastructure and energy security at the US State Department. “That’s what enabled us to be at the forefront of innovation and technology, and that’s what we need to do again.”