July 5 -- The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) invites public comments to OMB by July 12, 2024 regarding its request for emergency approval of the Ecosystem Questionnaire for States and Territories to Inform CHIPS R&D Facility Site Selection Process by July 15, 2024. Because both Congress and the Administration have identified American leadership in semiconductor research and development as a matter of national security and defense, the Department is implementing the search for this facility on an expedited timeline to meet economic and national security needs that Congress has identified. The Department needs to obtain the requested information from EDOs as expeditiously as possible in order to meet its statutory obligations under the CHIPS Act to provide an appropriate facility for both the NSTC and NAPMP programs, while the appropriated funds continue to be available for this purpose.
CHIPS R&D is seeking to collect information needed for implementation of the CHIPS Act of 2022 (Division A of Pub. L. 117-167) (the Act). The Act tasks the Secretary of Commerce with carrying out sections 9904 and 9906 of the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (15 U.S.C. 4652, 4654, and 4656). This statute aims to catalyze long-term growth in the domestic semiconductor industry in support of U.S. economic resilience and national security. This information collection is needed in conjunction with a multi-phase site selection process that will be used to identify a flagship research and development prototyping and packaging facility that is anticipated to become the lynchpin of both the National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC) and the National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program (NAPMP), the two largest research and development programs established by Congress through the CHIPS Act of 2022. The information is important for the Department of Commerce and Natcast—the purpose-built nonprofit entity which serves as the operator of the NSTC, and which is anticipated to serve as the operator of this flagship facility—in order to establish at the outset of the site selection process which states and/or territories have existing semiconductor ecosystems that could support this facility.
Congress appropriated $11 billion to fund CHIPS research and development programs. It is anticipated that the single biggest investment of that $11 billion will be allocated to NSTC and NAPMP facilities, which are critically important to the success of both of programs. Given the scale of the investment, the funding needed to acquire and operate this research and development prototyping and packaging facility will have implications on the entirety of the CHIPS research and development budget, further underscoring the importance of the collection to inform this process launching in the very near future.
Both the NSTC and NAPMP have a need to expeditiously identify facilities in order to accomplish their statutory missions. The NSTC is required to “to conduct advanced semiconductor manufacturing, design and packaging research, and prototyping that strengthens the entire domestic ecosystem.” 15 U.S.C. 4656(c)(2)(A). The NSTC is expected to “significantly reduce the time and cost of moving from design idea to commercialization through access to shared facilities, digital assets and technical expertise for advancing design, prototyping, manufacturing, packaging, and scaling of semiconductors and semiconductor-related products” (
https://www.nist.gov/system/files/documents/2023/04/26/NSTC-Vision-Strategy-Fact-Sheet.pdf). The NAPMP is expected to “include an Advanced Packaging Piloting Facility (APPF) where successful development efforts will be transitioned and validated for scaled transition to U.S. manufacturing. This is a key facility for technology transfer to high-volume manufacturing” (
https://www.nist.gov/system/files/documents/2023/11/19/NAPMP-Vision-Paper-20231120.pdf, pg. 3).
The Department of Commerce and Natcast have determined that co-locating many NSTC- and NAPMP-related capabilities in a single facility would be a significant added value to both programs. Having state-of-the-art semiconductor research and development capabilities in the same location as advanced packaging capabilities would be transformative for the semiconductor ecosystem in the United States, because the boundaries between semiconductor wafer/chip processing and next generation advanced packaging are blurring. Today, technology and researchers in these different domains are separated, and no independent research facilities for such innovations in packaging exist in the United States. A flagship facility with co-located chip/package solutions would accelerate co-optimized solutions at a pace that is not currently possible and set the United States on a path for continued leadership—at a time when public and private investment in semiconductor research and development by foreign adversaries is substantially increasing.
Today, many elements of the semiconductor ecosystem are geographically concentrated and produced outside of the United States, which is especially true of many advanced packaging capabilities. This endangers the global economy and U.S. national security. For example, many U.S. defense capabilities— including hypersonic weapons, drones, and satellites—are unduly vulnerable to supply chain disruptions and competing advances in research and development. To strengthen U.S. economic and national security, the CHIPS research and development programs must have these facilities online in an expeditious manner.
The information collection will take the form of an Ecosystem Questionnaire for States and Territories to Inform CHIPS R&D Facility Site Selection Process. The Questionnaire will pose identical questions to Economic Development Organizations (EDOs) in all 56 states and territories. This collection is subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act as the RFI would pose identical questions to all 56 states and territories. See 5 CFR 1320.3(c)(4) and (k)). The Ecosystem Questionnaire will request information regarding the extent to which a state or territory can demonstrate: the presence of entities from the semiconductor value chain; a semiconductor workforce and current workforce development programs; semiconductor-related advanced education and research programs; significant state, local, and private investment in the semiconductor ecosystem; and state incentives for semiconductor research and development. The Ecosystem Questionnaire is also structured to be as minimally burdensome as possible, both because responses are predominantly requested in the form of multiple-choice answers, and because the information the Questionnaire solicits should be easily available to EDOs. This will be a one-time collection of information to all 56 states and territories. Only states or territories that submit responses to the Ecosystem Questionnaire will be considered for selection of this facility.
The Department is requesting emergency approval of the Ecosystem Questionnaire for States and Territories to Inform CHIPS R&D Facility Site Selection Process by July 15, 2024. Prompt collection of the information sought in the Questionnaire is necessary to avert public harm. In particular, because both Congress and the Administration have identified American leadership in semiconductor research and development as a matter of national security and defense, the Department is implementing the search for this facility on an expedited timeline to meet economic and national security needs that Congress has identified. The Department needs to obtain the requested information from EDOs as expeditiously as possible in order to meet its statutory obligations under the CHIPS Act to provide an appropriate facility for both the NSTC and NAPMP programs, while the appropriated funds continue to be available for this purpose.
Respondents are only asked to submit one response to this questionnaire. The results from these data collection activities are not intended for general publication, however the results will/may be disseminated to CHIPS or DOC staff, and key federal policy and management officials. The Department and Natcast are requesting that EDOs respond within 7 days to this voluntary information collection because the information collection has been designed to be as minimally burdensome as possible—it only contains 21 questions; most responses are requested in the form of multiple-choice answers; and the information the Questionnaire solicits should be readily available to EDOs.
It is especially important to the Department and Natcast to be able to make significant progress on the site selection for this facility in order to demonstrate the expected value of the NSTC to potential members of the public-private sector consortium, who will be eligible to begin joining the NSTC in Fall 2024.
National Semiconductor Technology Center:
https://www.nist.gov/chips/research-development-programs/national-semiconductor-technology-center
National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program:
https://www.nist.gov/chips/research-development-programs/national-advanced-packaging-manufacturing-program
NIST submission to OMB:
https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewICR?ref_nbr=202407-0693-001 Click IC List for data collection instruments, View Supporting Statement for technical documentation. Submit comments through this webpage.
Proposed ecosystem questionnaire:
https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/DownloadDocument?objectID=144226100
Supporting statement:
https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/DownloadDocument?objectID=144226500
FRN:
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2024-14794
For AEA members wishing to submit comments, "A Primer on How to Respond to Calls for Comment on Federal Data Collections" is available at
https://www.aeaweb.org/content/file?id=5806