PCB007 Magazine

PCB007-Oct2022

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28 PCB007 MAGAZINE I OCTOBER 2022 ket while the United States took a short-term, quarter-to-quarter financial focus to let the markets decide. U.S. companies moved work— and the brainpower—to the countries that made competitiveness a priority. U.S. compa- nies simply couldn't compete with other coun- tries. Many U.S. companies went out of busi- ness, others consolidated to survive, and more moved work overseas. Nowhere is this more evident than with the printed circuit board industry. Every chip, regardless of where it is made, needs a printed circuit board, or PCB, to mate to an end use device. Today PCBs themselves are complex microelectronic components that require a skilled workforce and complex and expen- sive equipment to keep up with technology advances. Now that the much-heralded CHIPS and Science Act has been signed into law, the work to secure the entire microelectronics ecosys- tem must begin. We have a long way to go in restoring balance and resilience to our critical supply chains. Over the past 20 years we have let the manufacturing and the know-how that goes with it migrate overseas. U.S. dependence on foreign suppliers won't be reversed over- night, even by building semiconductor fabri- cation plants here. e offshore migration of microelectronics manufacturing was driven by lower labor and production costs in other countries—primarily in Asia—that chose long-term national invest- ment strategies. ese countries subsidized their industries to provide cheap labor and an unfair economic advantage to capture the mar- The CHIPS Act is Just the Beginning American Made Advocacy by Travis Kelly, PCBAA

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