NIST and Google combine to reduce IC production cost

Author: EIS Release Date: Sep 22, 2022

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has signed a cooperative R&D agreement with Google to develop and produce chips.

 

The chips will be manufactured by SkyWater Technologyat its Bloomington, Minnesota, semiconductor foundry.

 

Google will pay the initial cost of setting up production and will subsidise the first production run. NIST, with university research partners, will design the ICs.

 

The circuit designs will be open source, allowing academic and small business researchers to use the chips without restriction or licensing fees.

 

By increasing production to achieve economies of scale and by implementing a legal framework that eliminates licensing fees, the collaboration is expected to bring the cost of these chips down dramatically.

 

“By creating a new and affordable domestic supply of chips for research and development, this collaboration aims to unleash the innovative potential of researchers and startups across the nation,” said Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and NIST Director Laurie E. Locascio.

 

This collaboration was planned before the recent passage of the CHIPS Act, but, Locascio said, “This is a great example of how government, industry and academic researchers can work together to enhance U.S. leadership in this critically important industry.”

 

The NIST/Google collaboration will make available a bottom-layer chip with specialised structures for measuring and testing the performance of the components placed on top of it, including new kinds of memory devices, nanosensors, bioelectronics and advanced devices needed for artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

 

NIST anticipates designing as many as 40 different chips optimized for different applications. Because the chip designs will be open source, researchers will be able to pursue new ideas without restriction and share data and device designs freely.