The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering will lead site visits to eight regional innovation hubs as part of an initiative to speed up advanced microchip prototyping for military technologies.
OUSD(R&E) will send representatives along with delegates from the Naval Surface Warfare Center – Crane Division and National Security Technology Accelerator to the Microelectronics Commons Hubs in a three-week tour that starts on Monday, the Department of Defense announced.
The Commons hub network earmarked $2 billion over four years from fiscal 2023 to fund prototyping and workforce development in domestic microelectronics hardware. The budget was approved under the CHIPS and Science Act.
The hubs cover more than 430 academic institutions and other organizations across 35 states as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
The representatives will begin the visit at the California Defense Ready Electronics and Microdevices Superhub, which is led by the the University of Southern California. The final stop will be at the Silicon Crossroads Microelectronics Commons Hub, managed by the Applied Research Institute in Indiana.