Advanced chips made using leading-edge process technologies often need high-quality multi-layer motherboards. To ensure that such printed circuit boards (PCBs) can be produced in the U.S., President Joe Biden this week signed a presidential determination authorizing the use of Defense Production Act (DPA) to support domestic PCB and advanced chip packaging industries with $50 million.
Gradual migration of high-tech industry from the United States to Asia in the recent decades affected not only sophisticated semiconductor production and high-volume assembly of consumer electronics, but also things like chip packaging and production of PCBs. Meanwhile, all electronics devices — from a humble mouse all the way to a mission critical server or a piece of military equipment — use some kind of a motherboard, so the ability to produce sophisticated PCBs in the U.S. is also a matter of national security.
The presidential determination lets the Department of Defense use $50 million to provide DPA Title III incentives — including purchases and purchase commitments — to support the PCB and Advanced Packaging industries in the U.S.
While the U.S. government is interested in production of PCBs for use in national defense, energy, healthcare, and other crucial sectors in America, companies that receive subsidies from DoD will gain the technological capability and knowhow necessary to produce advanced boards in general, and will be able to serve other sectors as a result. We can only speculate whether this could eventually bring production of things such as graphics cards or PC motherboards back to the U.S. — it's definitely a possibility.
In fact, companies such as AMD, Apple, Google, Intel, Nvidia, and many others produce a variety of motherboards for their devices in the U.S. for test purposes, before initiating volume production in Asia. At least some American companies could expand their PCB and packaging operations in the U.S. to serve clients here — if they receive the right financial incentives.
"Without Presidential action under section 303 of the Act, United States industry cannot reasonably be expected to provide the capability for the needed industrial resource, material, or critical technology item in a timely manner," Biden wrote in a memo. "I find that action to expand the domestic production capability for printed circuit boards and advanced packaging is necessary to avert an industrial resource or critical technology item shortfall that would severely impair national defense capability."
