NSF and the Engineering Directorate invest in research and education activities in the area of semiconductors that align with the needs of the nation and support the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, White House strategies, and other policy directives (such as the 2022 report from the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, Revitalizing the U.S. Semiconductor Ecosystem) to enable U.S. leadership, spur economic growth, and advance jobs in microelectronics and semiconductors.

Call For Projects Update

Thanks to you, we had over 75 submissions to our SWAP Hub Limited Submission Process for the 15-project limit!  As you can imagine, that was a tremendous response with an equally overwhelming amount of work to narrow down the projects to the 15 we can submit.  Thanks to everyone for taking the time to propose your prototyping ideas to the SWAP Hub.  For those of you who did not get selected to advance to full proposal, here are some other avenues to engage to determine if we can help your project move forward prior to next year’s Call for Projects:

• Upcoming NSTXL Call for Topics (expected in spring) to determine next year’s Call for Projects
• Other CHIPS Act programs (eg. NAPMP expected by April)
• Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs
• ASU co-invests, with companies, in collaborative research projects through the Impact Arizona Science and Technology Centers (STCs). All six of the STCs develop or use microelectronics. To meet potential faculty research partners and learn about the upcoming funding opportunity announcement, join us on February 28^th for the next ASU Industry Technology Innovation Summit.
• You can use new semiconductor processing, metrology, and test equipment—funded by the SWAP Hub and other recent investments—through ASU’s Core Facilities. The Core Facilities enable researchers to use equipment themselves after training or to have a professional staff member operate equipment on their behalf, both on a pay-per-use basis. Available equipment ranges from 300 mm direct-write lithography to power device analyzers to aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopes.
• Engaging with SWAP Hub universities and community colleges (over 50,000 engineering students) on internships and capstone projects
• For more information on these and other opportunities at ASU, please contact Katie Smith (SwapHub@exchange.asu.edu).

Membership Update

SWAP Hub is now over 130 members strong!  Since December we have added over 60 new members.  We are updating our website to display new members and will be working on a new website over the next several months to better reflect the needs of the Hub and our partners.  Here is our breakout of membership by company type/size as of a couple weeks ago:

NSTXL/DoD Roadshow Visit

On January 26^th, we hosted over 30 DoD and NSTXL (National Security Technology Accelerator – our award sponsor) personnel as they traveled around to all 8 Hubs.  It was an excellent visit where we covered our strategy, highlighted some of our partners, and made many connections with our sponsor. We received great feedback and look forward to incorporating it into our Hub activity.  Key focus items from the DoD and NSTXL were to focus projects on delivering prototypes quickly and for the Hub leadership to focus on sustainability after federal funding is reduced/eliminated to ensure the benefits of the Hubs and Microelectronics Commons live on.

We are excited for what lies ahead!  Please feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions or thoughts.  This address works best to reach us: swaphub@exchange.asu.edu.