In early January, ASU announced its selection by the U.S. Department of Commerce to be the site of two new semiconductor development facilities. The NSTC Prototyping and NAPMP Advanced Packaging Piloting Facility is expected to open as soon as 2028. 

The National Semiconductor Technology Center and National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program are development programs established by CHIPS for America. 

Semiconductors are a critical part of the electronics production because they are crystalline solids that can act both as insulators or conductors, controlling the flow of electricity. 

Since 2020, the semiconductor industry has been rapidly growing in Arizona, creating more demand for higher quality technology and more efficient packaging. Semiconductor packaging is the organization of chips into smaller units. 

“All of those semiconductor chips that come through eventually have to be packaged,” said Kevin Reinhart, an executive director within Knowledge Enterprise. “Multi-chip packages are integrated in all three dimensions, to be stacked and built out to accommodate more and more complexity within a single device or package.”

Reinhart works with MacroTechnology Works, an ASU research facility that partners with businesses to develop technology based on industry needs. The U.S. Commerce Department and the The National Center for the Advancement of Semiconductor Technology have access to MTW to begin prototyping and production. The upcoming facility will be located in the ASU Research Park, near the MTW.

ASU is considered an attractive partner for semiconductor investment because of its existing relationships with private businesses and new research opportunities. 

“(ASU) is the source of the technology and of the workforce and you can tie into other companies that are in that workspace,” Reinhart said. “I think it’s a huge draw that we have Intel and TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) both here in the Valley, two leading-edge semiconductor fabs.”

The new investment comes from the federal government through the CHIPS for America initiative, a part of the CHIPS and Science Act. 

In November, President Donald Trump criticized the CHIPS and Science Act. While some questions remain about the future of the act, the funding for the two ASU facilities is largely assured.

According to a spokesperson from the Department of Commerce, the announced CHIPS for America R&D facilities will be operated by Natcast, which is an independent, nonprofit organization. 

Before this facility, ASU expanded its presence in the semiconductor industry through the Southwest Advanced Prototyping Hub, a partnership with the Department of Defense. 

“They’re buying a lot of equipment and reserving a lot of space and working with industry partners to look at packaging because that has become one of the big frontiers, that we have to figure out to make more of these faster and better and cheaper,” Kevin Hilgers, director of operations for the ASU NanoFab, said.

The co-located facility may provide future career and research opportunities for students, although final details have not been disclosed and job estimates are still preliminary, according to a Department of Commerce spokesperson.  

Reinhart said one of the MTW’s priorities in the partnership is advancing faculty and student research. 

“There is a pipeline of innovation there,” Reinhart said. “Faculty have ideas that they’re going to start to advance, and they’re going to pull students into that and have students working on a lot of these tools and developing that next generation of packaging.” 

The increased prevalence of the semiconductor industry in Arizona could provide technical jobs for other careers outside engineering as well. Hilgers said there is an ecosystem required to produce and sell semiconductors. 

“It’s not all engineers — it’s technicians, it’s product engineers, it’s marketing people, it’s test people, it’s business people, it’s supply chain management people,” Hilgers said. 

While the NSTC Prototyping and NAPMP Advanced Packaging Piloting Facility are under construction, students interested in the semiconductor industry can be trained to use tools through ASU Core Facilities.

“I’ve been working … over 40 years in this industry and I’ve started to work with students and give back to the community through students,” Hilgers said. “It’s hard to train lab work in volume. But we’ve got a lot of different programs at ASU that we are trying.”

Edited by Senna James, Abigail Beck and Katrina Michalak. 

Reach the reporter at syramir2@asu.edu and follow @nerdyoso on X. 

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