SEALSQ announces intention to establish OSAT center in the US

SEALSQ Corp today announced its plan to establish an Open Semiconductors Assembly and Test (“OSAT”) Center in the United States (“US”). The US-based OSAT would provide testing services such as the wafer test and final test, in addition to assembly services such as QFN, BGA, WLCSP, and more.

The initiative encompasses the development of Semiconductor Personalization Centers through Public-Private Partnerships (PPP). SEALSQ is currently in negotiation for three major projects in Europe, the Middle East, and the Far East to implement similar processes, run by experienced hardware designers to create the chip design using RISC-V technology. The chips will still be built locally at the SEALSQ centers, ensuring they meet the highest security standards and certifications from bodies such as Common Criteria and NIST.

The US-based OSAT will focus on the SEALSQ (Semiconductor, Efficient Architecture for Long-term Security Quantum) semiconductors, post-quantum cryptography, and artificial intelligence (Al), having the potential to herald a transformative era for semiconductor technology. This delves into the technical underpinnings and potential impacts of this integration, exploring how it paves the way for a new generation of semiconductors that are poised to redefine security, efficiency, and intelligence in digital systems.

Governments, including the US and EU, are currently establishing incentives to increase supply chain resilience, emphasizing the need for SEALSQ’s expanded operations. In the US, the International Technology Security and Innovation (ITSI) Fund, appropriated under the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) Act of 2022, provides the Department of State with $500 million – $100 million per year over five years, starting in Fiscal Year 2023 – to promote the development and adoption of secure and trustworthy telecommunications networks and ensure semiconductor supply chain security and diversification. To learn more, visit www.state.gov/the-u-s-department-of-state- international-technology-security-and-innovation-fund/.

The EU Chips Act likewise aims to increase supply chain resilience, though is also meant to safeguard European sovereignty and strategic autonomy with a 45 billion euro budget.

Carlos Moreira, CEO of SEALSQ, emphasized the strategic significance, noting, “In today’s tech-driven world, control over semiconductor supply is not just an economic advantage, it is a national security imperative. Our initiative empowers countries to establish local semiconductor personalization centers, ensuring uninterrupted access to these critical components.”

The US-based OSAT represents a pioneering approach to integrating quantum-resistant cryptographic capabilities directly into semiconductor architectures. This innovation is critical in the face of emerging quantum computing threats, which render traditional encryption methods vulnerable. By embedding post-quantum cryptographic algorithms at the hardware level, SEALSQ semiconductors offer robust protection against both current and future cryptographic challenges.

Post-quantum cryptography (“PQC”) is designed to secure communications against the computational power of quantum computers, which can easily break many of the cryptographic systems currently in use. Integrating PQC into semiconductor architectures involves leveraging lattice-based, hash-based, code-based, and multivariate polynomial equations that are believed to be resistant to quantum computing attacks. This integration ensures that data encrypted by these semiconductors remains secure against adversaries wielding quantum computing capabilities.