Five Ways Intel is Leading America’s Semiconductor Comeback

By Kapil Wadhera, Vice President and General Manager, Government Engagements & Business Operations at Intel Foundry

Fostering a robust semiconductor industry within the United States is a cornerstone of national security, as I explained in my previous article. Here are five ways that Intel is leading America’s semiconductor comeback by partnering with the US Government to help fortify the nation's technological sovereignty while mitigating vulnerabilities.

1. Investing more than $100 billion to increase domestic chip manufacturing capacity and capabilities to advance American semiconductor manufacturing and technology leadership powered by the promises of the CHIPS Act. We already have underway semiconductor manufacturing and research and development projects at Intel sites in Arizona, New Mexico, Ohio and Oregon. These projects are expected to create more than 10,000 company jobs and nearly 20,000 construction jobs, and to support more than 50,000 indirect jobs with suppliers and supporting industries. These investments, contingent on adequate CHIPS support, will fill several essential domestic supply chain gaps and are critical to U.S. economic and national security.

2. Leading the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD) Rapid Assured Microelectronics -Commercial (RAMP-C) program to support the U.S. to regain its semiconductor leadership. The RAMP-C program enables commercial and the U.S.-based defense industrial base (DIB) customers to fabricate leading-edge custom integrated circuits required for critical DoD systems products. With the recent award of phase three of RAMP-C, RAMP-C customers can begin designs for commercial high volume manufacturing (HVM) and DIB customers can start to build prototypes on Intel 18A process technology. This is a huge step forward: for the first time in decades, the U.S. government and DIB customers will have access to leading-edge process technologies at the same time as commercial customers. We are already seeing strong momentum in RAMP-C from customers including Boeing, IBM, Microsoft, Northrop Grumman, and Nvidia.

3. Building World’s first Systems Foundry for the AI era, supporting both commercial and defense customers. Sophisticated silicon, leading-edge process technology as well as early access to the technology are critical to DoD due to the evolving threat landscape and connected battlefield environment. With Intel 18A, DIB customers will be able to meet the defense industry’s strict size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) requirements. The Intel 18A process node, which is Intel Foundry’s biggest transistor innovation since the company introduced FinFETs to high-volume manufacturing in 2011, integrates the company’s new PowerVia backside power and RibbonFET gate-all-around technologies to significantly improve performance per watt and density. Intel Foundry also offers the most advanced packaging, assembly and test capabilities, combined with industry-leading interconnects and open standards, plus software and services stacked on top. We call this our Systems Foundry approach which is specifically designed for the computing needs of the AI era. Furthermore, DIB customers can design commercial applications with confidence in Intel Foundry’s trusted source of supply—something that is extremely important for applications with strict cybersecurity and data integrity requirements.

4. Leading the State-of-the-Art Heterogeneous Integrated Packaging (SHIP) Prototype Project sponsored by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering and funded by the Trusted and Assured Microelectronics program. The SHIP program provides the U.S. government access to Intel’s advanced heterogeneous packaging technologies, including Embedded Multi-die Interconnect Bridge (EMIB), Foveros 3D and EMIB 3.5D enabling the DoD and DIBs to leverage advanced semiconductor packaging and chiplet libraries, and quickly specify, prototype, build, test and incorporate advanced devices into field equipment. Intel Foundry’s advanced heterogeneous packaging technologies are making the latest military technology available in advanced system-level packaging.

5. Establishing an ecosystem for USG and DIB support via USMAG alliance. In addition to requiring the most advanced process technologies, military, aerospace and government (MAG) applications also impose unique security, export control and special material handling requirements. Designing and building these chips requires end-to-end capabilities across the semiconductor design and manufacturing life cycle. As the only U.S.-based foundry with leading-edge process capabilities, we are closely coordinating effort between advanced manufacturers and our electronic design automation (EDA), IP and design service alliance members to deliver these functional and operational security requirements within our USMAG Alliance.

America’s semiconductor leadership is crucial for national security, economic competitiveness, technology innovation and on-shore supply chain resiliency. I am excited about our strong partnership with the US Government to address national security challenges. By investing in America’s future, I am confident that we can accelerate the U.S. regaining semiconductor leadership benefitting the entire industry.