Clean room for lithography at UC Davis. Photo: Flickr / UC Davis College of Engineering / CC BY 2.0
A state is truly considered sovereign and protected if its power unit and state apparatus operate on domestic electronics. The use of foreign developments is equal to the transfer of control of the state apparatus to the wrong hands, since in the 21st century absolutely all sectors of the country are tied to digital computing systems.
The US is doing great with microelectronics, but there is one serious problem: almost all American chips are made in Taiwan. And in this subject of the “united China” has recently been observed serious tension. Nearly all electronics in the world are under threat.
Given the fact that the economic war between the US and mainland China is increasingly turning into an open military conflict, the US government decided not to hope for a miracle and a possible warming of relations. The country’s leadership decided to act for sure – to build factories for the production of processors on its territory.
Kill two birds with one stone
The tension around Taiwan is not just another political game between the two most powerful powers. This is evidenced direct threats Joe Biden to China, that in which case the US military would come into direct confrontation with the People’s Liberation Army of China.
The Americans approach the issue of reducing dependence in the field of electronics from China in a thoughtful and structured way. First they inflate the economic war, then they introduce sanctions with regard to the semiconductor industry in China, and the icing on the cake is the construction of new modern chip manufacturing plants in their homeland.
Thus, the United States wants to solve two problems in one fell swoop: to strangle chipmaking in China and become the new leader in the production of microcircuits. However, in China, too, they are not sitting idly by and are making every effort to completely abandon foreign critical equipment.
So, recently the Chinese SMIC curbed the mass production microchips according to the 14 nm process technology without the use of foreign developments. Moreover, the development of advanced 7 nm and 5 nm is already underway, which is very close to the capabilities of the leading Taiwanese giant TSMC. Recall that the smaller the technical process, the more difficult and expensive the production of such chips.
American strategy
Back in the early 2000s, up to 40% of all semiconductor elements were produced in the United States, while now this figure barely reaches 12%. It is one thing to design technologies, another thing is to bring them to life.
According to experts, the deindustrialization of the country, if chipmaking is not taken under control, in the coming years may lead to complete loss of control over the industry. Already now, microcircuits are being produced in the USA according to the process technology up to 10 nm, inclusive, and more advanced developments are completely processed by foreign partners. Mainly TSMC and Samsung.
Therefore, the US government decided to launch its own import substitution. There are several reasons for that:
- competition with rapidly developing China;
- reducing dependence on partners who can become enemies at any time;
- shortening supply chains.
The semiconductor crisis began to worsen not only due to the economic war between the US and China, but also due to the coronavirus, as well as a serious drought in Taiwan. Considering that the country and its economy are seriously dependent on the uninterrupted supply of microprocessors, it is necessary to reduce risks and transfer at least part of the capacity to its territory.
Whip and gingerbread
In August of this year, US President Joe Biden signed the Chip and Science Act, which prohibits domestic microelectronics manufacturers from expanding their presence in China and a number of unfriendly countries. We are talking about the production of chips more perfect than 28 nm, and the law affects not only processors, but also memory chips, integrated circuits. It’s a whip.
Now the carrot: as part of the program to revive domestic electronics, the US authorities intend to allocate about $52 billion leading corporations in the industry. Moreover, we are talking not only about grant funds – the state will help in the construction of enterprises / factories, and will reduce taxes, and in general will encourage the intentions of chipmakers in every possible way. The distribution of public funds will be monitored by the newly created organization CHIPS for America Found.
Фото: Flickr / IBM Research / CC BY-ND 2.0
Approximately half of the announced fund (about $28 billion) will go to the needs of manufacturers producing advanced chips for modern devices. It will not be possible to get money just like that, since companies will have to prove the efficiency of using the allocated budget by their own investments in the industry. That is, producers should increase funds, and not just save money through allocated grants.
State support will be available not only to chipmakers, but also to related companies involved in outsourcing, assembling components or testing finished products. The main thing is that they all work in the United States.
R&D is also a priority
Research and Development (R&D) is a critical component in the semiconductor industry. In the United States, they decided to divide this direction into four components:
- Microchip manufacturing;
- Advanced research in the field of microcircuits;
- Packaging is the invention of new chip form factors;
- New developments in the field of metrology.
All companies that will be involved in all four areas will receive a total of $11 billion in funding. And the National Semiconductor Technology Center (NTSC) will be engaged in pooling all efforts and resources, improving interaction between authorities and industry, laboratories and research organizations.
Plans of IT corporations
State funding — this is great, but the desire of domestic manufacturers to move to their homeland, as well as foreign companies to develop in the United States, is also important. Judging by the steps being taken, there are no problems with this.
Texas Instruments will invest $30 billion in building two factories in Texas, which will start producing the first products as early as 2025. The company plans to expand the number of factories to 4, thereby providing up to 3,000 new jobs.
Samsung Foundry — the American division of the South Korean company plans to highlight $17 billion to build a semiconductor plant in Texas. The manufacturer has already begun laying the foundation for the future building, putting the factory into operation in 2024. Technological process – 3 nm.
Intel — plans build in Ohio within 10 years, a mega-plant, which will occupy up to 400 hectares of area. Investments will amount to $100 billion, and the launch of the first facilities is planned for 2025. The production complex will be used not only for the creation of chips, but also for research activities. Thus, Intel will provide work for at least 3,000 people, and will attract up to 7,000 builders to build a factory.
GlobalFoundries — will spend up to $15 billion to build new factories in New York State. The money will go not only to the construction of production facilities, but also to the construction of new roads and interchanges. Rumor has it that among the clients of the company there may be Apple.
TSMC company next year will build a new plant in Arizona for the manufacture of 5 nm chips. New capacities will be focused primarily on such tech giants as Apple, Qualcomm, Nvidia and others. The launch of the factory is scheduled for 2024.
SK Hynix — in 2023, the brand intends to launch construction a new facility in the US with plans to start mass production of chips in 2025. The company will provide up to 1,000 new jobs.
How much to wait
A kind of import substitution in the US both looks and is implemented (so far) adequately. Financing is coming, there is a desire for manufacturers to gain a foothold on American territory, and no one can take away technology through the imposition of sanctions.
With IT being the critical infrastructure of the 21st century and in huge demand around the world, the US plan to resurrect microelectronics should work. It remains to wait only 3-5 years to finally be convinced of this.