Sandia Labs joins US semiconductor organization in bid to restore domestic production

Sandia National Laboratories this month joined the National Semiconductor Technology Center, the first national lab to do so, in an effort to help the U.S. regain its foothold in semiconductor manufacturing.

Decades ago, the U.S. manufactured more than 35% of the world’s semiconductors, but today produces only 12%, according to Sandia Labs. However, there’s a national revitalization of the industry in the U.S. with interest in once again onshore semiconductor manufacturing, said Liesl Folks, founding director of the Center for Semiconductor Manufacturing at the University of Arizona.

Semiconductors are “the foundation of modern technology,” according to Intel, one of the state’s largest employers that specializes in the technology. Semiconductors power all kinds of products, including smartphones, self-driving cars, and artificial intelligence-powered programs.

The next five years will bring more than $300 billion in investments in the chips sector in the U.S., from both private and public sectors, Folks said.

She said the COVID-19 pandemic alerted the nation to risks associated with the “fragility of the supply chain,” as well as geopolitical situations like the possibility of China invading Taiwan, both of which are home to major semiconductor manufacturing operations.

“That’s really prompted a round of refocusing and reinvesting in onshore and near-shore manufacturing to ensure that our economy can’t be harmed directly by geopolitical actors’ actions,” Folks said.

In comes Sandia’s new partnership with the National Semiconductor Technology Center, or NSTC, which the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act established. Sandia will offer access to some of its facilities to NSTC members, which includes major corporations like Intel, Nvidia, Apple and Google.

“The big goal is to strengthen capabilities,” said Mary Monson, Sandia’s senior manager of technology partnerships and business development. “Industry is moving fast, so we are keeping abreast of everything happening and incorporating what will help us deliver more efficiently on our national security mission.”

Sandia also hopes to train more experts in the workforce.

But Folks said U.S.-based semiconductor manufacturing could lead to increased product prices. Folks used the iPhone as an example, a common product that people worry could get more expensive.

“There have been only half-joking comments about, are U.S. consumers really going to love $2,000 iPhones, because we use U.S. labor instead of low-cost labor in other countries to produce these devices?” she said. “… Only time will tell how well we can simultaneously onshore some activity, make more resilient other parts of the ecosystem by having diversified sources for different components, without doing real harm to the U.S. economy.”