In February 2023, the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST’s) CHIPS Program Office published the first Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) under the CHIPS and Science Act (for background on this Act, see Wilson Sonsini’s prior alert, here). The original FOA was initially limited to applications for funding the construction, expansion, or modernization of commercial facilities for the front- and back-end fabrication of leading-edge, current-generation, and mature-node semiconductors. On June 23, 2023, the scope of the FOA was expanded to include applications for the construction, expansion, or modernization of commercial facilities for 1) wafer manufacturing, and 2) semiconductor materials and manufacturing equipment for which the capital investment equals or exceeds $300 million.

The amended FOA provides additional information on these additional categories:

• Wafer Manufacturing Facilities for the high-volume production of semiconductor wafers, including wafers made from silicon, silicon carbide, and gallium nitride. These facilities are the sites of ingot production and wafer slicing, lapping, polishing, cleaning, and inspection.
• Semiconductor Materials Facilities for the manufacture or production, including growth or extraction, of materials used to manufacture semiconductors, which are the chemicals, gases, raw and intermediate materials, and other consumables used in semiconductor manufacturing. Specific examples include but are not limited to polysilicon; photoresists and ancillaries (developers, strippers, litho solvents, and antireflective and hardmask layers); sputter targets (including tantalum, titanium, and aluminum); and materials specifically used in quantum information systems (such as hafnium and niobium).
• Semiconductor Manufacturing Equipment Facilities for the physical production of specialized equipment integral to the manufacturing of semiconductors and subsystems that enable or are incorporated into the manufacturing equipment. Specific examples of semiconductor manufacturing equipment include but are not limited to deposition equipment, including chemical vapor deposition, physical vapor deposition, and atomic layer deposition; etching equipment (wet etch, dry etch); lithography equipment (steppers, scanners, extreme ultraviolet); wafer slicing equipment, wafer dicing equipment, and wire bonders; inspection and measuring equipment, including scanning electron microscopes, atomic force microscopes, optical inspection systems, and wafer probes; certain metrology and inspection systems; and ion implantation and diffusion/oxidation furnaces.

As a reminder, pre-applications and full applications are currently being accepted for leading-edge facilities. Applications for current-generation, mature-node, and back-end production facilities will be accepted beginning June 26, 2023.

NIST recommends interested parties submit pre-applications for wafer manufacturing facilities and/or semiconductor materials and manufacturing equipment facilities. Those pre-applications will be accepted beginning September 1, 2023, and full applications will be accepted beginning October 23, 2023.

Those interested in obtaining funds should review the full amended FOA and related documentation at https://www.nist.gov/chips/notice-funding-opportunity-commercial-fabrication-facilities. Please see our prior client alerts here and here for additional details on the application process. Potential applicants are also reminded of the national security guardrails that will be attached to any awarded funding (our client alert on point is linked here).

The CHIPS Program Office still anticipates announcing two additional funding opportunities later this year. One will be for materials and manufacturing equipment facilities with capital investments below $300 million, and the other for research and development facilities.

Parties who seek to apply for funding under this FOA should ensure they understand and can meet the requirements of the FOA. Interested parties should continue to monitor nist.gov/chips for more information on this and future FOAs.