The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has shared its plans for the National Semiconductor Technology Center, a proposed national center for semiconductor research and production.
NIST published a paper April 25 "outlining its vision and strategy for a National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC)," the U.S. Department of Commerce announced at the time, calling the NSTC a "key component" of the semiconductor research and development initiatives supported by President Joe Biden's CHIPS and Science Act.
“The National Semiconductor Technology Center is designed to drive innovation and speed the transfer of new technologies to market,” NIST Director Laurie Locascio said in the news release. “This center will give the U.S. semiconductor industry an enduring technological lead and help develop a skilled workforce capable of manufacturing the world’s most advanced devices.”
The NIST's paper " A Vision and Strategy for the National Semiconductor Technology Center," details the center's mission and core programs to speed the country's to ability to research, design, engineer and manufacture innovative chip technologies, the news release reports. The measures would strengthen and secure the U.S.'s global leadership in competitive innovation, according to the release.
The NSTC also will partner with academic and industry leaders to develop additional centers nationwide to create a research and innovation network "unprecedented in scale, breadth, and focus," the release reports. NSTC centers also create "good jobs that will grow a domestic semiconductor workforce."
The paper outlines the NSTC's three main strategies as to extend America’s leadership in semiconductor technology; reduce the time and cost of moving from design idea to commercialization; and build and sustain a semiconductor workforce development ecosystem, the release reports.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo called the NSTC "an ambitious public-private consortium" that will bring together "government, industry, customers, suppliers, educational institutions, entrepreneurs, and investors."
“Most importantly, the NSTC will ensure that the U.S. leads the way in the next generation of semiconductor technologies which can enable major new advances in areas that will advance our economic and national security," Raimondo said in the news release. "While the manufacturing incentives of the CHIPS Act will bring semiconductor manufacturing back to the U.S., a robust R&D ecosystem led by the NSTC will keep it here.”
