President Biden has signed a presidential determination (PD) authorizing the use of the Defense Production Act (DPA) to support the nation’s domestic Printed Circuit Boards (PrCB) and Advanced Packaging industrial base.
The DPA is the primary source of presidential authority to expedite and expand the supply of materials and services from the U.S. industrial base needed to promote national defense.
President Biden’s recent authorization would expand DPA to allow investment in advanced microelectronics capacity and ensure the production of state-of-the-art integrated circuits in the United States.
“The rapid changes occurring within the microelectronics industry make it imperative for the [DoD] to ensure that this critical sector can support the nation’s defense needs. The [PD] will allow the DoD to use additional tools to ensure the resilience of American microelectronics manufacturing,” Anthony Di Stasio, director of the Manufacturing Capability Expansion and Investment Prioritization office, said in a press release.
PrCBs are critical components in all electronics used in the national defense, economic, environmental, energy, and healthcare management sectors. Advanced packaging allows multiple devices to be packaged and mounted on a single electronic device.
“We are committed to working with our interagency partners to expand the microelectronics domestic industrial base in the United States,” Di Stasio said.
Advancing the domestic PrCB and Advanced Packaging industrial base has been an ongoing priority for the Biden-Harris administration.
On Feb 2021, President Biden signed an executive order on ‘America’s Supply Chains,’ which prioritized investments for the domestic PrCB and Advanced Packaging industrial base to address the strategic vulnerabilities to U.S. military readiness and challenges to American economic competitiveness.
In addition, according to the DoD, advances in materials, manufacturing tooling, and process development are imperative in advanced packaging to support rapidly evolving technology and continuously shrinking feature sizes.
