A regional ecosystem for innovation in microelectronics and defense
Led by Arizona State University, the Southwest Advanced Prototyping Hub is one of eight regional innovation hubs established under the Department of Defense’s Microelectronics Commons, a national strategic initiative to accelerate the development and production of microelectronics technologies that are critical to U.S. security and defense. Funded by a $39.8 million initial DoD investment, the SWAP Hub is one of the first awards under the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, which aims to revitalize American semiconductor manufacturing capacity and competitiveness.
As the SWAP Hub lead, Arizona State University leverages its ability to convene and engage with stakeholders across diverse sectors. The SWAP Hub’s 130+ regional and national partners work together to accelerate the lab-to-fab transition between research, development and production, and collaborate to build the microelectronics workforce of the future through development of curriculum, learning opportunities and job pathways.
ASU coordinates Hub activities and develops the human, physical and digital capabilities of its partners to maximize value to the DoD and advance national security priorities around microelectronics.
170+
SWAP Hub members
6
capability areas
3
cross-cutting themes
comprehensive workforce development
The Department of Defense is interested in six technical areas across the Microelectronics Commons and supports prototypes for national defense.
SWAP Hub technical priority areas
Artificial intelligence hardware
5G/6G wireless technology
Commercial leap-ahead technologies
Other technical areas
Electromagnetic warfare
Secure edge computing and the internet of things (IoT)
Quantum technology
Partner with the SWAP Hub
The SWAP Hub’s partners include top semiconductor manufacturers and defense firms, national laboratories, leading academic institutions and numerous organizations and innovative startup companies. Hub partners benefit from access to world-class facilities, advanced equipment and tools, and support from experts at ASU and across the SWAP Hub’s network. The Hub also offers access to calls for proposals on DoD-funded projects and unique opportunities for collaboration.
High fidelity execution and innovation
The SWAP Hub leverages ASU’s sophisticated, mature management systems for working with industry and DoD clients, as well as its extensive experience in managing large-scale federal projects and complex sub-awards. ASU ensures DoD and industry-level rigor in management of SWAP projects through a systems-based manufacturing approach and quality systems model that enables agility and innovation while guaranteeing fidelity and trusted, secure collaboration. Additionally, ASU maintains capabilities to carry out classified work, allowing the Hub to execute projects that require security clearance.
Split-fab innovation for end-to-end success
The SWAP Hub leverages a unique “split fab” relationship between Arizona State University and Sandia National Laboratories, enabling a unique synergy of capabilities. Sandia specializes in fabrication of radiation-hardened (Rad-Hard) CMOS wafers with front-end-of-line (FEOL) process steps at its Microsystems Engineering, Science and Applications Complex and Center for Integrated Nanotechnology, and ASU handles back-end-of-line (BEOL) processing customized for CMOS+X at its MacroTechnology Works semiconductor fab.
The SWAP Hub also leverages more than $500 million in investment from the private sector and the State of Arizona, including $270 million from ASU, Applied Materials and the Arizona Commerce Authority for the new Materials-to-Fab Center at ASU’s MacroTechnology Works.
World-class capabilities and expertise
The SWAP Hub applies cutting-edge physical and virtual tools and world-class expertise across its workflow—from prototype design to demonstration—leveraging partner capabilities across six capability areas and driving performance across three cross-cutting themes.
Six unique SWAP Hub capability areas
Materials for CMOS+X
Rad-Hard CMOS+X Integration
Heterogeneous Integration
Circuits, Architectures, and Test
Metrology and Characterization
Power and RF Electronics
SWAP Hub’s three cross-cutting themes
Trusted and Assured
The Hub’s project performers are committed to designing, testing, and validating the security and trust of microelectronics from IP design through fabrication, packaging, testing and distribution.
Rad-Hard/Extreme Environment Reliability
Going beyond conventional commercial approaches, the Hub’s projects address potential threats to electronics that operate in space and other extreme radiation environments to guarantee functionality and reliability.
Workforce Development
The Hub produces microelectronics talent tailored to DoD-identified needs through partnership with industry, higher education institutions and non-profit organizations.
Capability and Theme Leads
Capability Leads
Seth Ariel Tongay
Professor, School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy, Arizona State University
Materials for CMOS+X Capability Lead
The Materials for CMOS + X Technologies Capability specializes in producing cutting-edge semiconductors, such as MoS2 and WSe2, on 100mm and 200mm wafers at CMOS-compatible temperatures. Our mission is to seamlessly integrate these emergent materials with the CMOS platform, enhancing it with additional functionalities like spintronics, Rashbatronics, neuromorphics, and memristors. This integration aims to push beyond the current capabilities of traditional CMOS technology, paving the way for innovative applications and advancements in the field.
Sapan Agarwal
Principal Member of Technical Staff, R&D, Sandia National Laboratories
Rad-Hard CMOS+X Integration, Co-Lead
SWAP Hub is developing a CMOS Discovery Platform that will allow hub users to heterogeneously characterize integrated BEOL device arrays under baseline and radiation environments. In addition, the Discovery Platform supports the integration and array-scale characterization of emerging devices by offering a unique, interposer-based option. In this case, emerging devices are fabricated on a large, planar substrate that is compatible with typical university labs, and supports micron and nanoscale devices processed under nonideal processing conditions.
Matthew Marinella
Associate Professor, School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, Arizona State University
Rad-Hard CMOS+X Integration, Co-Lead
SWAP Hub is developing a CMOS Discovery Platform that will allow hub users to heterogeneously characterize integrated BEOL device arrays under baseline and radiation environments. In addition, the Discovery Platform supports the integration and array-scale characterization of emerging devices by offering a unique, interposer-based option. In this case, emerging devices are fabricated on a large, planar substrate that is compatible with typical university labs, and supports micron and nanoscale devices processed under nonideal processing conditions.
Christopher Bailey
Professor, School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, Arizona State University
Heterogeneous Integration Capability Lead
Heterogeneous Integration refers to the integration of separately manufactured active and passive electronic components using advanced semiconductor packaging technologies. Within the Swap-Hub we have access to a wide range of packaging technologies which includes a world leading fan-out-wafer-level prototype line based on the DECA MSeries Gen2 platform. In addition to this our packaging capabilities are supported by accelerated life tests such as HALT/HASS, HAST, and thermal cycling as well as advanced Multiphysics analysis tools for thermal management and physics-of-failure reliability assessments.
Sule Ozev
Professor, School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, Arizona State University
Circuits, Architectures, and Test Capability Lead
The circuits and architectures design and test capability area aims to provide design, tapeout, and test support for the SWAP Hub activities and projects. The SWAP Hub will establish and maintain a circuit Intellectual Property (IP) library that contains common digital, analog, and RF circuit blocks, such as computation cores, multipliers, chip-to-chip communication units, analog-to-digital converters, power management units, RF amplifiers and mixers, and oscillators. The IP library will be a hybrid of soft IP (defined at the register transfer level) and hard IP (defined by layout targeting a specific technology node). Additionally, the SWAP Hub circuit testing laboratory contains multiple test equipment units, including signal generators, signal analyzers, and high speed oscilloscopes that are available to the hub member for a usage fee.
Umberto Celano
Associate Professor, School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, Arizona State University
Metrology and Characterization Capability Lead
The primary goal of the Metrology capability of SWAP Hub is to integrate existing and emerging materials characterization techniques to enable a rich suite of methods in support of yield, reliability, and failure analysis for the projects in our pipeline.
Trevor Thornton
Professor, School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, Arizona State University
Power and RF Electronics Capability Lead
The RF + Power Capability Area of the SWAP Hub provides growth and fabrication expertise for the prototype demonstration of ultra-wide bandgap (UWBG) devices based on diamond, boron nitride, aluminum nitride and gallium oxide. Material properties (carrier concentration, mobility, resistivity etc.) can be extracted by Hall effect measurements up to 500C. High-voltage/high-current (3 kV/100 A) I-V and C-V measurements can be automated with a FormFactor probe station for sample sizes ranging from pieces to 300 mm wafers. A similar FormFactor probe station for RF measurements allows automated on-wafer DC and small-signal parameter extraction up to 110 GHz.
Theme Leads
Jim Plusquellic
Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of New Mexico
Trusted and Assured Theme Lead
The Trusted and Assured (T&A) Theme provides a set of cross-cutting area capabilities for assessing, enhancing and validating security and trust within microelectronic systems. The T&A infrastructure provides capabilities that allow SWAP Hub participants (i) to assess threats and vulnerabilities within their prototypes, (ii) to integrate security enhancing IP, (iii) to utilize security assessment point tools within EDA tool flows, and (iv) to carry out assessment activities on abstract models of the prototypes, and on fabricated prototypes. Assessment facilities including an FPGA test bed for prototype emulation, as well as oscilloscopes, source-measure-units, automatic test equipment and physical inspection equipment, are available for assessing side-channel leakage and physical and functional vulnerabilities for a usage fee.
Hugh Barnaby
Professor, School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, Arizona State University
Rad-Hard/Extreme Environment Reliability Theme Lead
SWAP Hub efforts conducted under the Extreme Environments theme address potential threats to electronics that operate in space, strategic or other harsh environments. The environments include settings where radiation (e.g., heavy ions, neutrons, electrons, protons, gamma- & x-ray, and microwave), temperature, or other external conditions pose threats to electronic function and reliability not considered by the commercial microelectronics industry
Binil Starly
School Director and Professor, School of Manufacturing Systems and Networks, Arizona State University
Workforce Development Theme Lead
SWAP Hub’s workforce development mission is to enable a robust, thriving microelectronics industry in the Southwest USA. We enable this by investing in enhancing academic programs aligned with the needs of the microelectronics industry, upskilling & reskilling opportunities for working professionals, digital/virtualized learning experiences, and raising awareness among K-12 students and under-represented communities for career pathways in microelectronics.
Members and partners
Core partners provide capability across all Microelectronics Commons Hubs, including access to at-scale facilities with 300mm Si and 200mm compound capabilities
Capability partners provide capability to the SWAP Hub and its members, including access to hub facilities, equipment, software and expertise; <200mm/Si-based fab capabilities
Armijo Innovations
Florida International University (FIU)
Greater Phoenix Economic Council
Siemens Government Technologies
Southern Management Semiconductors & Engineering (SMSE)
Technical University of Munich
Tera Spatial
University of California at Santa Barbara
University of Colorado – Boulder
University of Southern California
SWAP Hub executive leadership team
Kyle Squires
Chief Executive Officer, SWAP Hub
Dean, ASU Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering
Jason Conrad
Chief Operating Officer, SWAP Hub
Krishnendu Chakrabarty
Chief Technology Officer, SWAP Hub
Fulton Professor of Microelectronics, ASU School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering
Benefits of engagement
Access ASU Core Facilities and faculty experts
Capability sharing with 130+ diverse Hub members
Teaming and funding opportunities, including on Microelectronics Commons and other CHIPS Act grants
Workforce development and employee upskilling
Exclusive networking events