Walk into the clean room at Polar Semiconductor, and you’ll encounter a different world.

Anyone who enters is required to wear protective clothing.

A row of chambers is bathed in yellow light — less harmful to the microchips made here.

But change is coming to this Bloomington semiconductor manufacturer.

“Very excited, thrilled actually, with all the expansion plans we have,” declares Rajesh Appat, the company’s vice president of Technology and Development.

Those expansion plans come after the awarding of $123 million in federal funds as part of the CHIPS and Science Act — an initiative to bring microchip manufacturing back to the U.S.

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“We do not want to rely on countries like China for the foundation of our cyber infrastructure,” says Sen. Amy Klobuchar. “We need to be a state and a country that makes stuff, invents things, and exports to the world.”

The government says just decades ago, the U.S. made 40% of the world’s chip supply.

That number is now less than 15%.

“This is a big game changer for Polar and for the United States,” says Mike Ritzenthaler, the company’s CFO. “We’re going to take a new leadership position.”

He says the funding will allow the company to expand its facility, doubling its output of 21,000 wafer semiconductors per month, and expand its workforce from 550 people to up to 700.

“It will allow us to double our capacity. We’ll be hiring a lot of new jobs, a lot of high-tech jobs,” Ritzenthaler notes. “The investments that the U.S. Commerce Department is making will help eat away at the advantage that Southeast Asia has in chip production.”

Klobuchar says Polar is the first company in the country to move from a preliminary agreement to the award stage.

Ritzenthaler adds Polar is also receiving $75 million in state funding and $125 million in private equity funds.

“Making sure that that supply is sort of guaranteed available is extremely important,” says Steven Koester, the chief semiconductor officer at the University of Minnesota. “It’s great for Minnesota, not only for the economy but kind of reestablishing, creating a high-tech research and development environment.“

About 60% of Polar’s microchips go into cars.

“Most of our semiconductors go into anti-lock systems and steering, “ Ritzenthaler says. “Airbags, seatbelt lights, the whole works.”

But the company says it’s now in discussions with the Defense Department, for their potential use in fighter jets and government computers.

“We are getting into the aerospace and defense markets,” Appat explains. “So, we are going to be working very closely with the Department of Defense in providing semiconductors that are required from satellite communications to warfare, and stuff like that.”

Koester says for U.S. chip manufacturers, it’s both an economic and national security issue.  

“For one, there’s just supply chain issues,” he notes. “If they come from China, it’s possible that supply could get cut off.”

Polar plans to ramp up its expansion within the next two years, with the goal of making more microchips in Minnesota.  

“We are not only excited, but we are looking forward to the challenges as well, and I believe we are ready for that,” Appat says.