MILPITAS, CA – FlexTech, a SEMI Technology Community focused on driving flexible hybrid electronics (FHE) innovations, today issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for advances in innovative materials, FHE design tools, additive-enabled processing, hybrid electronics packaging, FHE manufacturing, AI/ML applications, soft robotics, and power solutions. Selected projects will receive cash awards ranging from $250,000 to $1 million. The program is funded by the Army Research Laboratory (ARL).

Organizations submitting proposals will be evaluated based on their capabilities, experience, and strengths including team diversity. See the SEMI FlexTech 2023 Request for Proposals for more details on the evaluation process.

White paper submissions, the first step in responding to the RFP, are due June 5, 2023. To help organizations prepare their proposals, FlexTech staff will review the RFP topics and the submission and review process during a live webinar on May 25, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. PDT. The webinar is open to organizations considering submitting a proposal. A recording will be available for registrants unable to attend the event. Registration for the event is open.

Following the review of white papers by the RFP Review Committee, consisting of FlexTech Council members and other subject matter experts (SMEs), FlexTech will invite selected organizations to submit full proposals. The evaluation criteria include:

• Rationale
• Budget
• Collaboration value
• Dual-use (industry and military) applicability
• Relevance to the FHE ecosystem
• Schedules and milestones
• Reasonable and stretch deliverables
• Overall proposal quality

FlexTech supports technical approaches that are revolutionary or have a significant element of risk, as well as approaches that are evolutionary improvements upon existing capability, which tend to be less risky and involve shorter development and delivery intervals. Research and development efforts funded by FlexTech are in the U.S. government’s Technology Readiness Level (TRL) and Manufacturing Readiness Level (MRL).

FlexTech encourages partnerships among industrial companies, R&D organizations, and university teams. ARL funding will be matched with contributions by grant recipients to cover the total project cost. Development partners retain ownership of intellectual property developed under FlexTech contracts.