U.S. Department of Defense awards $39.9M to Calumet Electronics to enhance printed circuit board supply chain

Calumet Electronics Corporation of Michigan earned a $39.9 million award from the United States Department of Defense (DoD) this week as part of efforts to improve production capabilities for High-Density Build-Up (HDBU) substrates.

Pulled from the Defense Production Act Investment (DPAI) program, the funding will allow Calumet to scale its engineering, tooling and manufacturing operations in a bid to create domestic production capabilities for HDBU substrates – items like printed circuit board cores and build-up layers. These substrates are critical for sixth generation systems and applications, such as radar, electronic warfare, processing and communications.

“The Biden Administration has prioritized the need to support and advance the domestic PrCB and advanced packaging industrial base,” Dr. Laura Taylor-Kale, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy, said. “These technologies are critical for modern weapons systems and will contribute to maintaining our warfighting edge over potential adversaries.”

The company will demonstrate its capabilities to the DoD in Calumet, Michigan. In receiving this award, it became one of 22 organizations awarded approximately $714 million through the efforts of the Manufacturing Capability Expansion and Investment Program.