HP Inc. has secured CHIPS and Science Act funding of up to $50 million to expand and modernize its Corvallis, Oregon-based “lab-to-fab” facility transitioning research and development efforts to commercial manufacturing.
According to the Department of Commerce, it signed with the Palo Alto, California-based company a non-binding preliminary memorandum of terms, or PMT, for the CHIPS support after a merit review of HP’s application.
Under the PMT funding agreement, the company’s Corvallis facility would pursue the development and production of silicon devices vital to life sciences’ discovery tools, such as devices for drug invention and single-cell research. HP will deploy its expertise in microfluidics technology and microelectromechanical systems in the CHIPS-funded project.
The facility, one of HP’s three R&D Centers for Excellence, would also strengthen its capability to assist partner institutions in academia, the government sector and private industry, including Harvard Medical School and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Commerce Department said. It added that the facility’s expansion and modernization would create an estimated 150 jobs in construction and 100 in manufacturing.
Enrique Lores, HP’s president and CEO, cited the CHIPS funding as a further investment in the company’s microfluidics technology, which involves harnessing fluid behavior on a microscopic scale.
“Microfluidics has the potential to drive revolutionary changes across industries, delivering speed, efficiency, and precision, to help pave the way for the next generation of innovation in life sciences and technology,” he said.