Blueprinting domestic microchip manufacturing

The Next-Generation Microelectronics Manufacturing, or NGMM, is DARPA’s program to develop systems to domestically build 3D heterogeneously integrated, or 3DHI, microelectronics. 3DHI microelectronics use a new architecture that can improve chip efficiency compared to current 2D and 3D designs. The program is part of DARPA’s larger Electronics Resurgence Initiative.

Hongbin Yu, a professor of electrical engineering, leads a team funded by a $1.5 million grant through the NGMM program.

“We’re thinking about how we can make the electrical connections reliable and cost effective,” said Yu, a faculty member in the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, part of the Fulton Schools. “We’re also looking at aspects of how to simplify the manufacturing process. We have to do it cheaply; if you spend $1 billion to make one 3DHI microsystem device, that doesn’t work.”

DARPA’s ultimate goal is to create a manufacturing facility, or multiple facilities if needed, that will enable industry, government and academia to create prototypes of 3DHI devices on a small scale across the U.S., with the additional aim of improving national security.