How an $85M federal award would help CFS, fusion energy, and U.S. chip industry
There’s a tighter link between fusion energy and computing than you might realize. We at Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) of course rely on computer processors to design our fusion machines and simulate the physics that make them tick.
But it turns out that fusion can help the semiconductor industry that develops those chips, too. We expect a proposed $85 million award from the United States government to do just that.
The Department of Commerce and CFS have signed a letter of intent for $85 million in proposed federal incentives to help CFS advance microelectronics projects in the U.S. that can boost technology like fast AI controllers and the beefy power supplies that feed electricity to our magnets.
In short, the funding would help improve the U.S. chip and power electronics industries at the same time it accelerates fusion energy’s progress toward the electrical grid. Millions of people stand to benefit from both.
Let me explain with a deeper look at what this award is all about.
First, where will the money come from? The Department of Commerce’s award is part of the CHIPS and Science Act, a 2022 bipartisan law designed to rebuild the U.S. semiconductor industry and maintain competitiveness in this vital sector of the global economy. The law appropriated more than $50 billion for federal investments into fabrication facilities where processors are made and into support for areas like skills development, supply chains, and research. Our award is through the CHIPS Research and Development Office (CRDO) and its effort to boost microelectronics leadership.
Semiconductor technology is responsible for the chips in everything from computers and smartphones to baby monitors and microwave ovens. And someday soon, fusion power plants. When the COVID pandemic disrupted chip supply chains, it hobbled sales of washing machines, pacemakers, and Ford F-150 pickups and made it clear just how beholden U.S. industries are to overseas chipmaking. The CHIPS Act is designed to boost U.S. manufacturing capacity and the R&D abilities that keep the industry moving forward, maintaining a secure supply chain as part of a broader reindustrialization strategy.
That’s where our CRDO award comes in.
The funding would advance the fusion energy effort at CFS and the ability of semiconductor companies to supply components crucial to fusion. Ultimately, that means a more capable, economical power plant and a stronger U.S. supply chain to build it. Reindustrialization means new jobs, new manufacturing capabilities, and new economic activity that’ll complement fusion’s clean, firm, secure energy.
And these projects also stand to boost many other industries, too — for example, the AI-accelerated controls and digital twin projects can directly apply to aerospace, advanced manufacturing, and electricity grid operation.
Five areas where fusion means chip progress
These are the projects involved in the award and some of their uses in the SPARC fusion machine we’re building now, the ARC fusion power plants we’re designing, and other technology domains beyond fusion.
- Modern silicon carbide (SiC) power electronics. The type of fusion machine we’re making, called a tokamak, needs power supplies that in a matter of seconds can crank out up to 50 kiloamps of power — enough for hundreds of houses — to pump electricity into and out of our pulsed magnets. Newer power electronics with silicon carbide technology offer performance and affordability benefits for us and for a vast range of power electronics applications like EVs, trains, electricity grid stabilizers, and electric arc furnaces.
- Next-generation radio frequency (RF) power generators. Fusion machines require these generators to heat fusion fuel. Previous devices used archaic vacuum tube technology suited to the high power requirements, but ARC power plants will use modern solid-state, high-power RF electronics. These also can improve radar systems, particle accelerators, and other industrial applications.
- AI for fusion technology. CFS will apply artificial intelligence to SPARC and ARC, our first two fusion machines, and develop a digital twin of SPARC. That can dramatically accelerate simulations with AI “surrogate models” that stand in for slower software, letting us improve operations and better plan fusion pulses. We’ll also speed up these tools by adapting them to AI-specific hardware foundations like graphics processing units (GPUs) and tensor processing units (TPUs) for fusion power plants.
- Faster control electronics. CFS will benefit from more powerful and affordable control electronics with high performance data processing abilities that are useful for monitoring and running our tokamaks. We plan to develop an AI-specific variant of these control electronics designed to interpret data and make power plant controls even faster and more effective. Beyond fusion, these controllers could improve data readout and control in areas ranging from quantum computing to robotic surgery.
- Radiation-hardened electronics. The neutrons that fusion produces means we’ll need specialized electronics to operate our ARC power plants, including robotic maintenance. Better radiation-hardened electronics will help us run ARC plants more efficiently, driving overall plant performance and reducing costs. They also could offer commercial applications in areas like better satellite electronics in space and proton therapy machines for cancer treatment.
Benefiting the United States
As shown by new government support for fusion in China, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, and other countries, the United States government isn’t alone in trying to bring the benefits of fusion online. This new energy source promises secure, firm, dispatchable, clean, affordable electricity — and it’ll be the last new energy source humanity will need.
