Draper Laboratory plans to deliver some of the world's most advanced semiconductors to the Department of Defense (DoD) through a secure U.S. supply chain for the first time in decades, the non-profit chip-design firm told EE Times. By 2027, Draper aims to supply chips made with Intel's 18A process technology that are stitched together with chiplets from other U.S. vendors, Draper said.
www.eetimes.com, Aug. 14, 2024 –
Draper Laboratory plans to deliver some of the world's most advanced semiconductors to the Department of Defense (DoD) through a secure U.S. supply chain for the first time in decades, the non-profit chip-design firm told EE Times. By 2027, Draper aims to supply chips made with Intel's 18A process technology that are stitched together with chiplets from other U.S. vendors, Draper said.
Roy Bishop (Source: Draper)
In July, the company opened the Draper Advanced Packaging Facility in St. Petersburg, Florida, to enable faster design and production of chips through a supply chain that's 100% U.S.-based. Draper expects the facility to help the DoD resume the use of leading-edge chips in weapons like missiles and other hypersonic systems, Roy Bishop, Draper's business development lead, told EE Times.
"Weapons systems have fallen off the state-of-the-art progression curve beginning 15 years ago, and they've had difficulty getting back on," Bishop said. "Draper's open foundry model at the Advanced Packaging Facility allows more participants, more designs, more capabilities in the ecosystem, and it gets [the] DoD back on that progression curve sooner. It's not just Draper's designs, it's other folks' as well."
Draper's advanced packaging center was funded in part by a $10 million award from the Defense Production Act (DPA) Title III office in 2021 to expand capacity.