Division of Commerce Declares Grants Throughout 9 States Spotlight Thriving U.S. Semiconductor Business
At present, the Biden-Harris Administration awarded nearly $5 million to 17 small companies throughout 9 states underneath the Small Enterprise Innovation Analysis (SBIR) Program. The SBIR Section I awards will fund analysis tasks to discover the technical advantage or feasibility of an progressive concept or expertise for creating a viable services or products for introduction in the business microelectronics market. That is the first award for the CHIPS Analysis and Growth Workplace. The Biden-Harris Administration is devoted to getting small companies the sources they want to thrive and selling competitors to degree the taking part in subject.
“As we grow the U.S. semiconductor industry, the Biden-Harris Administration is committed to building opportunities for small businesses to prosper. With today’s awards, these 17 businesses will support CHIPS for America’s efforts to grow the U.S. semiconductor ecosystem and support our national and economic security” saidU.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.
NIST measurement science, or metrology, is at the coronary heart of all the advances we anticipate from American chipmakers in coming years, like smaller, sooner, chips that take much less vitality to make, function and funky, with extra features at much less expense. The award-winning tasks had been competitively chosen from proposals submitted in response to a Discover of Funding Alternative (NOFO) on a number of matters on analysis tasks for critically wanted measurement companies, instruments, and instrumentation; progressive manufacturing metrologies; novel assurance and provenance applied sciences and superior metrology analysis and improvement (R&D) testbeds to assist safe U.S. management in the world semiconductor business.
These are all Section I SBIR awards, that are meant to set up the advantage, feasibility and business potential of the proposed analysis and improvement tasks. All 17 small companies might be into account for a SBIR Section II award in Spring 2025. Every Section II award will be funded up to $1,910,000.
“NIST and CHIPS for America are proud to support these small businesses as they take innovations, scale them for the commercial marketplace, and boost the U.S. economy. We are happy to support the entrepreneurs with great ideas as they seek to build the next great American company,” mentioned Below Secretary of Commerce for Requirements and Technology and Nationwide Institute of Requirements and Technology (NIST) Director Laurie E. Locascio.
CHIPS Metrology SBIR Awardees
Direct Electron LP (Rancho Bernardo, California) Develop a novel high-speed digital camera for high-resolution electron backscatter diffraction and transmission Kikuchi diffraction which can considerably increase the supplies properties that may be probed with this method. This undertaking will profit U.S. business utilizing supplies characterization for present and next-generation microelectronics units.
HighRI Optics, Inc (Oakland, California)Develop cutting-edge expertise for calibration of the instrument switch operate of maximum ultraviolet (EUV) lithographic instruments. This undertaking will advance EUV lithography expertise for the U.S. semiconductor business.
Photon Spot, Inc. (Monrovia, California)Develop an ultra-compact, ultra-low vibration cryogenic system to help time-resolved imaging purposes. This undertaking will profit built-in circuit producers and researchers conducting experiments on quantum applied sciences.
Photothermal Spectroscopy Company (Santa Barbara, California)Develop a brand new instrument for high-speed thermal properties evaluation and simultaneous chemical characterization with sub-micron spatial decision. This undertaking will enhance thermal administration and thermal property characterization for the U.S. semiconductor business.
PrimeNano Inc (Santa Clara, California)Develop a measurement expertise for in-line metrology, which has purposes in supplies purity, electrical properties, three-dimensional units, and subsequent era manufacturing. This undertaking will profit the U.S. metrology and superior packaging industries.
Recon RF, Inc. (San Diego, California)Develop next-generation large-signal and high-power transistor modeling strategies to create extremely correct fashions for Radio Frequency (RF)-Microwave circuit design simulators. This undertaking will profit researchers and U.S. producers of superior radar, communications, and satellite tv for pc applied sciences.
Sigray, Inc (Harmony, California)Develop a novel linear accumulation x-ray supply to obtain an order of magnitude improve in efficiency over main x-ray sources for crucial dimension scattering. This undertaking advantages researchers and producers of semiconductor transistors.
Vapor Cell Applied sciences (Boulder, Colorado)Develop superior dimensional metrology instruments for semiconductor fabrication gear to decrease the hole in the physical-digital divide and amplifying the accuracy of digital twins. This undertaking will profit the U.S. microelectronics provide chain.
Tech-X Company (Boulder, Colorado)Develop a simulation instrument for photonic built-in circuits that accounts for manufacturing variations and imperfections. This undertaking will profit the designers of photonic built-in circuits, who could have sooner improvement instances in addition to U.S. semiconductor producers and fabrication amenities.
Octave Photonics LLC (Louisville, Colorado)Develop a brand new measurement instrument to analyze airborne contaminants and poisonous gases inside and outdoors the fab that lead to semiconductor processing defects and security infringements. This undertaking will advantages U.S semiconductor fabrication amenities.
Digital EM, Inc. (Ann Arbor, Michigan)Develop a Radio Frequency (RF) channel sounder system to precisely characterize the results of the wi-fi setting. This undertaking will profit microelectronics corporations and analysis establishments centered on communication applied sciences.
The Provenance Chain Community (Portland, Oregon)Develop a reference implementation of the Commercial Belief™ Protocol (CTP) to handle verifiable credentials (VCs), metrology, and mental property, enhancing {hardware} safety, and provenance monitoring of microelectronic elements throughout provide chains. This undertaking will profit the U.S. microelectronics provide chain business.
Tiptek, LLC (West Chester, Pennsylvania)Develop new high-speed nanoprobes to improve the skill for semiconductor failure evaluation to find and analyze to detect “gentle’ electrical faults that happen on the most superior semiconductors and are in any other case troublesome to detect. This undertaking will profit researchers and semiconductor failure evaluation engineers in the U.S. semiconductor business.
Exigent Options (Frisco, Texas)Develop AI-powered software program to automate chip design optimization for manufacturability via accelerated lithography simulation. This undertaking will profit U.S. researchers and business contain in semiconductor design and manufacturing.
Laser Thermal Evaluation, Inc (Charlottesville, Virginia)Develop hybrid atomic power microscopy instrument that can robotically generate maps of the thermal resistance, thermal boundary interface resistance, and temperature profiles of microprocessors and broad bandgap semiconductor supplies and units. This undertaking will profit units with thermal administration challenges and supplies improvement wants on size scales smaller than 100 nanometers.
Hummingbird Precision Machine Co. dba Hummingbird Scientific (Olympia, Washington)Develop a transmission electron microscopy in-situ specimen holder that allows real-time imaging of nano-scale digital units. The undertaking will profit producers and researchers of next-generation high-voltage energy converters utilized in all kinds of industries.
Steam Devices (Madison, Wisconsin)Develop a speedy and correct high-resolution ion microscopy expertise for supplies characterization notably centered on challenges for the semiconductor business. This undertaking will profit the U.S. semiconductor business and researchers.
Be taught extra about the CHIPS Metrology Program and the seven grand challenges.
