‘Future is very bright’ for Indiana Uplands
May 8, 2023
Carol Johnson, Southern Indiana Business Report ODON – The United States didn’t shrink its role in the business of chip manufacturing because other countries were smarter or had more advanced technology. Other countries stepped up their production because of capital investment by their countries. That’s about to change. The recent chip shortage exposed the US reliance on global chip suppliers. Wanting to reduce the United States’ reliance on chips imported from other countries, the US is stepping up its investment in semiconductor manufacturing. Southern Indiana will be at the forefront of creating critical components when WestGate One, a new microelectronics campus, is completed. NHanced Semiconductors, an Illinois-based manufacturing innovator, expects to move into its Advanced Packaging facility at WestGate One by the middle of 2024. Bob Patti, president of NHanced Semiconductors, spoke at the Purdue@Westgate First Tuesday talk May 2, offering a glimpse of what’s to come and what will be needed for growth. Patti addressed a group of about 60 at the WestGate Academy and Conference Center. The audience included industry, defense, regional and state stakeholders and academia. Over a 30-year career in semiconductor technology, Patti has led the development and delivery of cutting-edge 3D and 2.5D integration technology for high energy physics, medicine, automotive, military, HPC and other fields. Patti gave an overview of the evolution of semiconductor manufacturing the past 50 years and the significance of WestGate One, an $84 million campus that will be built near WestGate. NHanced, which will be the anchor of the campus, is an AP foundry. It specializes in BEoL processing with leading-edge technologies such as photonics, microfluidics and additive silicon manufacturing. “Advanced Packaging is the overnight success that’s been going on for 20 years,” Patti said. “Every cell phone camera is Advanced Packaging.” As devices have become faster and smaller, the design process has run out of scale. The cost of building a new factory that is leading edge is more than $30 billion, Patti said. AP makes a cell phone run faster, last longer and use less power. For the military, AP means less weight in the wings of fighter jets. “We need a path forward and that path is advanced packaging. We’re going to see a sea change in how semiconductors are built,” he said. From an education standpoint, the region is going to need to recruit more talent, both degreed and non-degreed. NHanced has hired a workforce development director to work with universities; Patti said men and women leaving the military represent untapped potential to fill the workforce demand. Since the official groundbreaking in November 2022, NHanced has increased the size of the building from the original 125,000 square feet to 151,000 square feet because of anticipated growth and employees. In three years, Patti forecast the campus could employ 1,000 people. “The future is very bright. We’re in a great position as a country … with what Congress has done (passing the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act that includes a $39-billion manufacturing subsidy program) and the state of Indiana has done to help us and help all of you,” Patti said. “It’s going to change the world.”