NSF Engines Development Award: Advancing microelectronics technologies (MO, KS)

This Regional Innovation Engines Development Award will coordinate, stimulate and ripen an innovation ecosystem and workforce across the Missouri-Kansas region centered around advancing microelectronics and playing a meaningful role in ensuring US economic and national security in microelectronics. The region boasts an actionable foundation of economic infrastructure and technical know-how from mineral assets mining to microelectronics components and system development, manufacturing, testing, and applications.

The region has the potential for private and State investment and raw material, gas supplies, and electronic waste recycling capacity, further bolstering the circular economy and this ecosystem. The expected outcomes in 24 months include a blueprint for (a) the creation of more than 6000 jobs in the microelectronics industry; (b) workforce training and nationwide coordination to meet the expected additional 130,000 US microelectronics workers needed before 2029; (c) coordination processes that enable dynamic industry-government-academia decision making; (d) demonstration of the impact of underrepresented and diverse leadership; (e) small and medium-sized business startups and expansions with vetted feasibility plans; and, (f) public and private sector funding to meet the US on-shore production needs in microelectronics.

This effort will develop an ecosystem enabling use-inspired research for translation to dual-use applications, a next-generation STEM workforce, and embedding DEIA practices at all levels. The technical work will follow a top-down approach from use-case and application mapping and supply-demand determination to research technology enablers for advanced manufacturing of chips, packaging, raw materials, gases and mining, resource allocation, and compiler/firmware development to chip design.

In advanced manufacturing, materials, mining, and extraction, the applied research will develop translational methodologies and tools that facilitate the on-shore manufacturing and sustainable supply of critical goods. The materials thrust will encompass public policy development encouraging the environmentally responsible domestic recovery of critical materials from existing and new process streams.

The Development Award award will empower the team to develop replicable intellectual infrastructure that drives technical innovation and creates a self-sustaining ecosystem for a sub- and mid-tier microelectronics industrial base that results in a strong workforce and innovation ecosystem.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.