Sivers Wireless and more than 85 organizations from across the Northeast region of the United States have submitted a proposal to the US federal government to create the Northeast Microelectronics Coalition, a regional hub that will advance the microelectronics needs of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) while spurring new jobs, workforce training opportunities, and investment in the region’s advanced manufacturing and technology sectors. The Coalition submitted the proposal to the DoD’s Microelectronics Commons program, which is funded by the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act that aims to onshore the manufacturing of microelectronics and semiconductor technologies and support workforce training for these industries. The state of Massachusetts has proposed up to $40 million in matching funds to support this proposal.
Microelectronics Commons will disperse roughly $1.6 billion over the next five years to boost nine regional hubs across the country. Each hub will be aligned on one or more technology focus areas: Quantum, 5G/6G, Secure Edge, AI Hardware, Electronic Warfare, and Commercial Leap Ahead. The Northeast Coalition’s submission includes six distinct proposals for each focus area highlighting the strong technology, manufacturing, and defense ecosystem in Massachusetts and across the Northeast. The regional hubs will be awarded funding to commence operations in the second half of 2023.
Sivers Wireless is deeply involved in projects in the 5G/6G and Electronic Warfare focus areas. Other major entities involved in the coalition include Nokia, Ericsson, GlobalFoundries, and Raytheon to name a few.
“The US Federal CHIPS and Science Act will spur investment and innovation in the semiconductor industry like never seen before. The DoD Microelectronics Commons program is the first investment coming from the CHIPS Act, and Sivers is excited to be a part of this coalition. This is of course made possible by our transformative acquisition of MixComm in 2022, which has a long history of working with the DOD,” says Anders Storm, Group CEO, Sivers Semiconductors.