Union City opens new AI chip assembly hub to expand U.S. advanced packaging capacity
- Resonac on April 20 opened a semiconductor packaging research center in Union City, California, launching the U.S.-Japan “US-JOINT” consortium and creating what the company calls the first U.S. site dedicated to advanced packaging development. - The Union City hub starts with 12 Japanese and U.S. materials and equipment companies, Class 100 and 1,000 cleanrooms, and a goal of cutting proof-of-concept cycles from roughly six months to one month. - The project puts advanced back-end chip work closer to Silicon Valley customers as U.S. officials push to rebuild packaging capacity that has long been concentrated in Asia. (resonac.com)
Resonac has opened a new chip-packaging research center in Union City, California, and says it is the first U.S. facility dedicated to developing advanced semiconductor packaging technology. (resonac.com) (abc7news.com) The site is the operating base for US-JOINT, a consortium of 12 Japanese and U.S. materials and equipment companies that began full-scale operations in April 2026. Resonac inaugurated the center on April 20 with government officials and company representatives from both countries. (resonac.com) (ulvac.co.jp) Advanced packaging is the back-end step that turns finished silicon into working chip modules by bonding, molding, plating, and testing parts together. That stage has become more important as artificial intelligence servers and custom accelerators rely on stacked chips and tighter connections to move more data. (ulvac.co.jp) (resonac.com) The Union City center is built to let chip users and suppliers test those packaging ideas near Silicon Valley customers instead of sending work overseas. ULVAC said the site includes Class 100 and Class 1,000 cleanrooms plus evaluation and analysis equipment for patterning, bonding, molding, and plating. (ulvac.co.jp) Resonac said the aim is speed. Chief executive Hidehito Takahashi said US-JOINT is designed to shorten proof-of-concept work from about six months to as little as one month by letting the 12 partners work together in Silicon Valley. (resonac.com) The company first unveiled US-JOINT in July 2024 as a 10-partner effort and said the Union City facility would be built through co-investment. By the April 2026 launch, the consortium had expanded to 12 companies, adding 3M and TOPPAN to the listed participants. (resonac.com) (ulvac.co.jp) The roster now includes Resonac, KLA, Kulicke and Soffa, ULVAC, 3M, TOPPAN, Tokyo Ohka Kogyo, TOWA, NAMICS, MEC, Moses Lake Industries, and Azimuth Industrial. Resonac said the group will work with major semiconductor users to validate new concepts and move them toward commercialization. (ulvac.co.jp) (resonac.com) The opening lands as U.S. policymakers try to rebuild more of the semiconductor supply chain at home, not just wafer fabrication. Resonac said advanced packaging and back-end processing have traditionally been concentrated in Asia, even as major chip designers and hyperscalers have clustered in Silicon Valley. (resonac.com) ABC7 reported Resonac spent four years planning the Union City site and that city officials expect it to bring jobs and closer ties between Bay Area customers and suppliers. Takahashi told the station Silicon Valley’s faster pace was one reason the company wanted the center there. (abc7news.com) For Union City, the ribbon-cutting puts a quiet industrial corner of the East Bay into the middle of the artificial intelligence hardware race. For Resonac and its partners, the next test is whether a local packaging hub can turn customer ideas into qualified chip designs in weeks instead of months. (abc7news.com) (resonac.com)
