North Carolina State University will lead a group of six universities and 18 private-sector companies in a new manufacturing innovation institute that President Barack Obama announced during his Wednesday visit to the Triangle. The announcement brought media attention to the Triangle’s semiconductor and cleantech sector

The federal government is investing $70 million in the initiative over five years. That amount will be matched by the participants and the state of North Carolina.

The “Next Generation Power Electronics Innovation Institute” will help companies and universities invest in manufacturing technology and develop next-generation power electronics. It’s the first of three such hubs that Obama called for in his State of the Union address last year.

The Triangle area already is a hub for semiconductor research and development as well as cleantech. For example, NCSU is conducting joint research into semiconductors with RTI International. And ABB, one of the private sector partners in the efforts, operates an office at NCSU’s Centennial Campus. It’s North American headquarters is located in Cary.

“We’re honored that it’s a great validation of our cleantech community and validation of building an eco-system that includes co-operation between business, government and academia,” Lee Anne Nance, who directs the Cleantech Cluster effort for the Research Triangle Regional Partnership,” told WRALTechWire.

“That we can now count more than 100 companies in the smart grid sector, up from an initial count of about 60 in 2011, is due to us getting to know more companies and how they are connected. And it illustrates the fact that investment will spawn additional investment.”

The University of North Carolina System, Arizona State University, Florida State University, University of California at Santa Barbara and Virginia Tech will also be a part of the group.

The 18 companies include Durham-based Cree, a global leader in semiconductor and light emitting diode technology.

John Palmour, Cree ‘s chief technology officer and and one of the firm’s co-founders, attended the Obama event. Cree has 2,344 employees in the Triangle.

Just last month, Cree (Nasdaq: CREE) received a $30 million boost from the federal government in the form of tax credits as part of an Energy Department effort to drive more jobs in “clean energy” manufacturing. The government says the credits will help Cree expand in Durham as well as at a plant in Wisconsin.

How many new jobs might be created was not specified.

In 2010, Cree received some $39 million in benefits from the government to help drive more manufacturing.

Obama visited Cree in 2011

Also included are Vacon, which operates an R&D facility in Durham, and Greensboro-based semiconductor firm RF Micro Devices.

Also, the Semiconductor Research Consortium is based in RTP. Separately, on Wednesday the SRC announced a multi-million dollar effort to develop more secure chips.

The complete list of companies involved in the NCSU project:

  • ABB
  • APEI
  • Avogy
  • Cree
  • Delphi
  • Delta Products
  • DfR Solutions
  • Gridbridge,
  • Hesse Mechantronics
  • II-VI, Inc.
  • IQE
  • John Deere
  • Monolith Semiconductor
  • RF Micro Devices
  • Toshiba International
  • Transphorm
  • USCi
  • Vacon

Obama toured Vacon facility prior to his speech at N.C. State.

“I don’t want the next big job-creating discovery and research and technology to be in Germany or China or Japan. I want it to be right here in the United States of America. I want it to be right here in North Carolina,” Obama told a crowd of about 2,000 people packed into the J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center on N.C. State’s campus.

N.C. State Chancellor Randy Woodson said the university is honored to lead the consortium.

“It embodies what this great university stands for – our think and do mentality,” Woodson said. “No one in the world knows this emerging technology better than N.C. State.”

One specific technology that members of the institute will develop is wide-bandgap semiconductors, which can make power electronic devices for personal devices, electric vehicles and industrial-scale drive motors more efficient. Wide bandgap semiconductors can operate at higher temperatures and are more durable than silicon semiconductors.

The group of businesses and universities will receive $70 million from the Department of Energy in the next five years, an amount that will be matched through a combination of funds from the businesses and schools involved, along with at least $10 million from the state of North Carolina.

Obama called manufacturing a bright spot in the sputtering U.S. economy, noting 80,000 jobs have been added in the sector in the last five months.

“We want to build on the kind of work being done at places like N.C. State to develop technologies that lead to new jobs and entire new industries,” he said.

One specific technology members of the institute will develop is wide bandgap semiconductors, which can make power electronic devices for personal devices, electric vehicles and industrial-scale drive motors more efficient. Wide bandgap semiconductors can operate at higher temperatures and are more durable than silicon semiconductors.

“The new manufacturing innovation institute announced today in North Carolina is focused on enabling the next generation of energy-efficient, high-power electronic chips and devices by making wide bandgap semiconductor technologies cost-competitive with current silicon-based power electronics in the next five years,” the White House said.

“These improvements will make power electronic devices like motors, consumer electronics, and devices that support our power grid faster, smaller, and more efficient. The winning team, led by North Carolina State University, brings together a consortium of leading companies that included some of the world’s leading wide band gap semiconductor manufacturers, leading materials providers, and critical end-users like John Deere and Delphi with universities on the cutting edge of technology development and research, all in a vibrant and entrepreneurial region that can serve as the foundation for ongoing U.S leadership in this important technology.”