BAE Systems Is Recipient of First CHIPS Act Funding Award

BAE Systems has received an approximately $35 million award from the U.S. Department of Commerce to modernize its Microelectronics Center (MEC) in Nashua, N.H. The award is the first funding announcement as part of the CHIPS and Science Act, which was designed to strengthen American manufacturing, supply chains, and national security. The legislation became law last year.

BAE Systems’ MEC is a 110,000-sq-ft U.S. Department of Defense-accredited, semiconductor chip fabrication and foundry facility that develops advanced semiconductor technologies beyond those available commercially to meet demanding military requirements. It is one of the only domestic defense-centric 6-in. gallium arsenide and gallium nitride high electron mobility transistor wafer foundries.

In a statement, U.S. President Joe Biden said that once finalized, the investment will quadruple the facility’s production capacity for chips essential to national security applications, including for use in F-35 fighter jets produced in Nashua. Tom Arseneault, president and CEO of BAE Systems, said that the funding will additionally increase BAE Systems’ capacity to grow its technical workforce and strengthen domestic supply chains.

Further, BAE said, the increased efficiency resulting from the funding, which BAE said it will couple with ongoing investment, will enable a scale-up in production to meet increasing demand for Department of Defense technology and provide critical microelectronics to nondefense industries and markets. These include satellite communications and test and measurement equipment.