Purdue’s semiconductor innovation ecosystem grows with CHIPS-funded, Indiana-led semiconductor hub and with upcoming summit

Purdue continues to create unique lab-to-fab ecosystem for the state and country

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue University continues building momentum as America’s leading university in semiconductors, with a broad range of updates this fall semester.

CHIPS and Science Act funding

Submitted through the Applied Research Institute, the Indiana-led proposal “Silicon Crossroads” was announced Sept. 20 by the Department of Defense as one of eight Microelectronics Commons Hubs selected out of over 80 proposals across the U.S. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division (NSWC Crane), in Indiana will manage the program.

The hubs are the first major program funded through the CHIPS and Science Act 2022, co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Todd Young of Indiana. The total five-year budget is around $2 billion; FY23 is year 1 and has a budget of $238 million. The Indiana-led consortium, with participation from Illinois and Michigan, received $33 million as part of the year 1 budget and is the largest hub in the Midwest.

“Located in America’s heartland, Silicon Crossroads builds on the Midwest’s strengths in research and development as well as workforce training at all levels to build a domestic semiconductor industry — a national security imperative to keep our nation ahead of our adversaries,” said Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb.

“As we collectively work to grow the nation’s microelectronics base, Indiana will play a key role in the development of these critical national security technologies and capabilities,” Young said. “More broadly, this announcement shows how the CHIPS and Science Act will connect more of America, including the industrial Midwest, to the innovation economy.”

Indiana leads the Silicon Crossroads Hub, and as its leading university Purdue will collaborate with many members of the consortium in the coming years.

Purdue is also the university leading the Department of Defense workforce program SCALE, with a national consortium of 18 universities.  

Additional Information

• Purdue establishes permanent presence next to NSWC Crane for future of national defense and semiconductors
• Second funding round delivers $19 million to Purdue-led microelectronics workforce development program
• Seeing STARS: Purdue trains next generation of semiconductor engineers

Serving the state of Indiana

Purdue is a national leader in microelectronics materials, devices, chip design, tool development, manufacturing, packaging and sustainability, spanning the semiconductor ecosystem in software and hardware with long-standing faculty excellence.

Strategic initiatives in semiconductors, such as the first comprehensive Semiconductor Degrees Program, which was announced before the CHIPS and Science Act passed in 2022, are intended to prepare a next-generation workforce for industry. Economic development and research collaboration followed as well, including from Skywater, MediaTek, and Belgium-based imec.

As part of Purdue Computes initiative, Purdue’s growing semiconductor innovation ecosystem includes $49 million in new facilities and tools for the Birck Nanotechnology Center, which will also be accessible by Ivy Tech, Indiana’s statewide community college and a local partner with Purdue in developing next-level workforce and brain gain strategies for Indiana.

Earlier this month, Purdue announced the creation of Purdue@Crane, a permanent Purdue presence for national security research collaboration with NSWC Crane, including participation in the WestfGate Foundry with companies such as Everspin Technologies and NHanced Semiconductors.

National leadership and upcoming summit

Purdue’s approach to semiconductors was spotlighted during a panel discussion between Purdue President Mung Chiang and Adrienne Elrod of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s CHIPS Program Office on Sept. 20 at the Fast Company Innovation Festival in New York City. The four-day festival, attended by thousands of the world’s most inventive thinkers, up-and-coming entrepreneurs and visionaries, showcases “creativity and groundbreaking ideas that are transforming industries.” Chiang and Elrod highlighted Purdue’s role in both workforce development and research innovation, with a rapidly growing ecosystem co-locating partners in the “heart of the Silicon Heartland.”  

Next month Purdue will host a semiconductors summit through a sequence of events on campus:

• On Oct. 17, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger will visit Purdue for a Presidential Lecture.
• On Oct. 18, the U.S.-Japan Semiconductor Alliance UPWARDS will kick off on the Purdue campus, where 11 universities in the U.S. and Japan along with Micron, Tokyo Electron Limited and the National Science Foundation will move forward the project signed in Hiroshima, Japan, at the G7 Summit in May.
• On Oct. 19, Purdue, along with imec, the U.S.-Japan team and India Semiconductors Mission, with which Purdue signed a collaboration in May, will meet in West Lafayette to discuss long-term collaboration in semiconductor education, research and industry partnership.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a public research institution with excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities and with two colleges in the top 4 in the United States, Purdue discovers and disseminates knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 105,000 students study at Purdue across modalities and locations, with 50,000 in person on the West Lafayette campus. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue’s main campus has frozen tuition 12 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap, including its first comprehensive urban campus in Indianapolis, the new Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business, and Purdue Computes, at https://www.purdue.edu/president/strategic-initiatives.

Writer/Media contact: Brian Huchel, bhuchel@purdue.edu 

Source: Mung Chiang