US Chips Act R&D money for 17 small businesses

17 small businesses are to share $5 million in US Chips Act money to support metrology projects under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Programme. This is the first award for the CHIPS Research and Development Office.

The 17 were  selected from proposals submitted in response to a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) on multiple topics on research projects for  measurement services, tools, and instrumentation; innovative manufacturing metrologies; novel assurance and provenance technologies and advanced metrology R&D testbeds.

These are all Phase I SBIR awards, which are meant to establish the merit, feasibility and commercial potential of the proposed research and development projects. All 17 small businesses will be under consideration for a SBIR Phase II award in Spring 2025. Each Phase II award can be funded up to $1,910,000.

The 17 are:

Direct Electron LP (Rancho Bernardo, California)

Develop a novel high-speed camera for high-resolution electron backscatter diffraction and transmission Kikuchi diffraction which will significantly expand the materials properties that can be probed with this technique. This project will benefit U.S. industry using materials characterisation for current and next-generation microelectronics devices.

HighRI Optics, Inc (Oakland, California)

Develop cutting-edge technology for calibration of the instrument transfer function of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithographic tools. This project will advance EUV lithography technology for the U.S. semiconductor industry.

Photon Spot, Inc. (Monrovia, California)

Develop an ultra-compact, ultra-low vibration cryogenic system to support time-resolved imaging applications. This project will benefit integrated circuit manufacturers and researchers conducting experiments on quantum technologies.

Photothermal Spectroscopy Corporation (Santa Barbara, California)

Develop a new instrument for high-speed thermal properties analysis and simultaneous chemical characterization with sub-micron spatial resolution. This project will improve thermal management and thermal property characterization for the U.S. semiconductor industry.

PrimeNano Inc (Santa Clara, California)

Develop a measurement technology for in-line metrology, which has applications in materials purity, electrical properties, three-dimensional devices, and next generation manufacturing.

Recon RF, Inc.  (San Diego, California)

Develop next-generation large-signal and high-power transistor modeling techniques to create highly accurate models for Radio Frequency (RF)-Microwave circuit design simulators. This project will benefit researchers and U.S. manufacturers of advanced radar, communications, and satellite technologies.

Sigray, Inc (Concord, California)

Develop a novel linear accumulation x-ray source to achieve an order of magnitude increase in performance over leading x-ray sources for critical dimension scattering.

Vapor Cell Technologies (Boulder, Colorado)

Develop advanced dimensional metrology tools for semiconductor fabrication equipment to minimize the gap in the physical-digital divide and amplifying the accuracy of digital twins. This project will benefit the U.S. microelectronics supply chain.

Tech-X Corporation (Boulder, Colorado)

Develop a simulation tool for photonic integrated circuits that accounts for manufacturing variations and imperfections. This project will benefit the designers of photonic integrated circuits, who will have faster development times as well as U.S. semiconductor manufacturers and fabrication facilities.

Octave Photonics LLC (Louisville, Colorado)

Develop a new measurement tool to analyze airborne contaminants and toxic gases inside and outside the fab that lead to semiconductor processing defects and safety infringements. This project will benefits U.S semiconductor fabrication facilities.

Virtual EM, Inc. (Ann Arbor, Michigan)

Develop a Radio Frequency (RF) channel sounder system to accurately characterise the effects of the wireless environment.

The Provenance Chain Network (Portland, Oregon)

Develop a reference implementation of the Commercial Trust™ Protocol (CTP) to manage verifiable credentials (VCs), metrology, and intellectual property, enhancing hardware security, and provenance tracking of microelectronic components across supply chains.

Tiptek, LLC (West Chester, Pennsylvania)

Develop new high-speed nanoprobes to enhance the ability for semiconductor failure analysis to locate and analyze to detect “soft’ electrical faults that occur on the most advanced semiconductors and are otherwise difficult to detect.

Exigent Solutions (Frisco, Texas)

Develop AI-powered software to automate chip design optimization for manufacturability through accelerated lithography simulation.

Laser Thermal Analysis, Inc (Charlottesville, Virginia)

Develop hybrid atomic force microscopy instrument that will automatically generate maps of the thermal resistance, thermal boundary interface resistance, and temperature profiles of microprocessors and wide bandgap semiconductor materials and devices. This project will benefit devices with thermal management challenges and materials development needs on length scales smaller than 100 nanometers.

Hummingbird Precision Machine Co. dba Hummingbird Scientific (Olympia, Washington)

Develop a transmission electron microscopy in-situ specimen holder that enables real-time imaging of nano-scale electronic devices.

Steam Instruments (Madison, Wisconsin)

Develop a rapid and accurate high-resolution ion microscopy technology for materials characterisation particularly focused on challenges for the semiconductor industry.