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BRIDG and NeoCity, home to clean-room nanotechnology, is in the running for a $160 million National Science Foundation grant to further the study. PHOTO/BRIDG
NeoCity’s proposed Semiconductor Technology Accelerator is one of 34 semifinalists in the inaugural National Science Foundation Regional Innovation Engines competition.
If received, the $160 million grant, spread out over ten years, will benefit high-tech education in Osceola County public schools, and programs at Valencia College and the University of Central Florida. The grant would be administered through BRIDG, the not-for-profit, public-private partnership providing semiconductor research and development at the NeoCity facility.
“The NSF grant would provide a conduit to the Central Florida community, establishing a workforce development program, training curriculum, and educational improvements that advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility to all citizens, uplifting our community like never before,” said Jim Vandevere, BRIDG President.
The Accelerator is the only semifinalist solely focused on semiconductor and microelectronics research, development, and manufacturing. BRIDG is hoping the program’s uniqueness and the majority non-profit nature of the NeoCity collaboration will be a winning combination.
Facilities like NeoCity/ BRIDG have become vital to national security over the last two decades. Access to resources has been the cause of conflicts over many centuries — in the 1990s it was oil. In our current times, it is computer chips, which are necessary to power new cars, phones, and practically every device requiring a plug in or charge.
Over 60 % of the world’s supply of semiconductors, and an astounding 90% of the highest-end computer semiconductor chips, are currently manufactured in Taiwan. The Pacific island nation has traditionally been considered part of China, however, when the current communist regime took over mainland China in the late 1940s, Taiwan declared itself the democratic Republic of China, dominated by many refugees from the mainland fleeing communism.
The rapidly developing communist People’s Republic of China has publicly and emphatically declared its intent to reclaim Taiwan, even threatening military invasion, similar to Russia’s attack on Ukraine last year. Taking control of Taiwan also means controlling the world’s supply of high-end semiconductor chips.
In response, the U.S. Department of Defense has funded an Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment (IBAS) technology development program in an effort to “re-shore” semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S. In November 2022, new BRIDG technology partner SkyWater Technology completed its first efforts under IBAS, by establishing a comprehensive domestic silicon interposer manufacturing capability, a key component in the unending pursuit of smaller and more efficient processing for electronics. The IBAS program coincided with a previous $50 million U.S. Economic Development Administration’s Build Back Better Regional grant awarded to BRIDG earlier in the Fall of 2022 for semiconductor manufacturing.
The Semiconductor Technology Accelerator would build on that IBAS success and produce a revenue stream from production capability by providing funding for workforce training and initial operations. NeoCity officials expect the final NSF grant awards to be announced sometime in July.
For more information on NeoCity and BRIDG, see https://bit.ly/3XvJxWA.
