CHIPS Manufacturing USA Institute Offers $285M for Digital Twins Concepts in Semiconductors

The Department of Commerce has announced that about $285 million in funding is available for eligible participants in the first CHIPS Manufacturing USA Institute, which will develop, validate and use digital twins for manufacturing semiconductors. Launched under the CHIPS for America Program, the institute will operate as part of 17 Manufacturing USA institutes tasked to foster innovation, education and cooperation in the U.S. manufacturing sector.

The CHIPS program will host a Proposers Day on May 16 to brief potential applicants on the objectives and structure of the notice of funding opportunity for the new institute, the Commerce Department said Monday. 

Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo cited the institute’s potential to help grow the U.S. semiconductor industry, saying that it will help develop U.S. leadership in deploying digital twins in semiconductor manufacturing but will also provide digital twins training for the next generation of workers and researchers in chip production. 

According to Arati Prabhakar, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy director and a speaker at a past Potomac Officers Club event and a Wash100 winner, President Joe Biden’s leadership is “writing a new chapter” in U.S. semiconductor manufacturing through the institute as digital twins can fast-track the development and production of an “extraordinarily complicated product.”