Equipment: CHIPS: Heterogeneous Integration and Packaging of DC-100GHz Electronics Chip and Circuits

The National Science Foundation Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP) supports projects that enhance undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and research at HBCUs, as means to broaden participation in the nation's STEM workforce. This HBCU-UP equipment award provides Florida A&M University (FAMU) with a multiple chip heterogenous integration solution including simultaneous conductive and dielectric 3D printing, chip pick and place, and in line real time characterization and testing.

The system is qualified for academic research and teaching in broad area of chip science and microelectronics with capability of 1) enabling rapid prototyping through in-situ fabrication techniques of multilayer structures (>20 layers); 2) simultaneous printing both conductive and dielectric materials for printed electronic circuits, interconnection of chips, and packaging applications; 3) placing multiple chip dies in compact form and real time functional testing for heterogenous integration DC-100GHz electronics. Heterogeneously integrating multiple chips as radio frequency components, antenna, and digital controls into compact form factor is extremely important for current and future technology advances in artificial intelligence, national security, defense, wireless communication, and high-speed computations etc.

The system offers and enriches hands on experiences for undergraduate and graduate students in electrical, material, and industrial engineering fields, and the research project and education development plan can further increase retention rate of undergraduate and graduate in engineering field and attract students including K-12 to develop their career in STEM field and build capacity and capability for diverse science and engineering workforce in minority serving institutions. This project also plays a key role in expanding faculty scholarship in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Florida A&M University, thus expanding the research capacity at an HBCU in alignment with the goals outlined in the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.