U.S. Semiconductor Manufacturing Needs More Than Just Chips

Semiconductor Review | Monday, March 06, 2023

It is no secret that semiconductor chips play a significant role in American manufacturing. The Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors and the Science Act of 2022 hold great promise for the national economy.

FREMONT, CA: The CHIPS (Creating Helpful Incentives to Generate Semiconductors) and Science Act of 2022 have the potential to resuscitate domestic electronics manufacturing in part because semiconductor chips are as American as apple pie.

A landmark industrial plan signed into law last August aims to increase U.S. competitiveness, innovation, security, and capacity to manufacture semiconductors, advanced packaging, and complex integrated systems.

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The CHIPS and Science Act provides a much-needed reprieve from the chip and advanced packaging shortages that have plagued the automotive, computing, and consumer electronics industry for several years. Moreover, this investment might help position the U.S. electronics manufacturing sector as a communications, diagnostics and medicines, clean energy, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence (AI) leader.

Developing A Manufacturing Innovation Ecosystem For Electronics

American Semiconductor Innovation Coalition (ASIC) members have proposed an ultra-functional organizational framework that might enable a flexible proving ground for researching, developing, testing, and transferring technological and manufacturing innovations to guarantee a stronger domestic chip and advanced packaging supply chain.

The U.S. requires a semiconductor and advanced packaging supply chain that is more scalable and sustainable. ASIC members representing all phases of the electronics manufacturing supply chain collaborated to create a proposal to establish the NSTC and the National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program (NAPMP), which CHIPS and the Science Act would fund.

The ASIC proposal to create an NSTC innovation hub within six months is part of an ambitious technical agenda leveraging its members' extensive semiconductor, advanced packaging, and complex integrated systems expertise, encompassing simulation, design, materials, processing, manufacturing, and testing equipment. ASIC would integrate university- and industry-led Coalitions of Excellence (COE) into its NSTC innovation hub if the Department of Commerce selected it.

The non-profit International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (iNEMI) is also crucial. This organization coordinates R&D scouting and road mapping efforts and directs technical initiatives involving electronic manufacturers, suppliers, associations, government agencies, and educational institutions as members. iNEMI analyzes and tackles technology and infrastructural gaps to deliver innovative and strategic solutions, expediting the development and deployment of electronics manufacturing technologies.

New Partnership, Cooperation, and Connectivity Models

New modes of collaboration that foster more cooperation throughout this electronics manufacturing innovation ecosystem are required to overcome various semiconductor supply-chain issues. Participating in coalitions that bring together great minds and entrepreneurial thinkers from universities, startups and small/medium firms, national labs, and global organizations offers numerous advantages. Each individual has a distinct perspective regarding resolving some of the most perplexing issues affecting the future of semiconductors, advanced packaging, and complex integrated systems manufacturing.

The history of intelligent manufacturing can help us move from discovery to commercialization quickly. As previously stated, smart manufacturing is a team sport, and developing the manufacturing sector involves operations, engineering, and IT representation. Semiconductors, advanced packaging, and sophisticated integrated system manufacturing require similar data sharing and communication across people, systems, tools, and machines to fill important data gaps and enable more significant levels of data intelligence.

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