Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1456062
44 SMT007 MAGAZINE I MARCH 2022 Recent IPC studies and our advocacy efforts have urged Congress to combine investments in U.S. semiconductor manufacturing with additional support for advanced packag- ing, printed circuit boards (PCBs), and the related EMS technologies that bring it all together and enable chips to work their magic. Without such action, U.S.-made chips will still need to be sent offshore to be manufactured into finished products, leaving the U.S. vulner- able to supply chain shocks like those triggered by the coronavirus. Indeed, IPC's recent report on the PCB sec- tor concluded that the United States has already lost its historic dominance in PCBs, and the lack of any significant U.S. government sup- port for the sector is leaving the nation's econ- omy and national security dangerously reliant on foreign suppliers. In one bright spot, the House bill would appropriate at least $2.5 billion in fiscal 2023 for advanced packaging R&D, aimed at helping U.S.-based companies adopt new techniques to electronically connect multiple chips in a single package through integrated circuit sub- strates. As most electronics engineers know— but very few others do—in a post-Moore's Law world, with the pace of improvements in chips slowing down, advanced packaging offers an alternative way to achieve more computing power and economic efficiency. e one-time funding for advanced packag- ing in the House bill is a good start, but it's only a start. Most urgently, the U.S. needs to invest in long-term development and production of advanced integrated circuit substrates—the base layers used in the packaging of integrated circuit chips—for which there are only nascent capabilities domestically. The Human Element Another urgent need is developing the human element: the workforce of the future to staff the factory of the future. Here again, I am not aware of any U.S. federal, state, or local government agency that has a plan to increase the supply of skilled workers for this critically important sector. Why would there be, aer decades of neglect and outsourcing? As a result, private companies are le on their own to compete for a limited quantity of highly educated and skilled workers, and to invest some of their small profit margins in training for entry-level and mid-level workers. IPC's Education Program is growing and doing all it can to fill the gaps, but the U.S. industry needs more. And not only do we need to fill the gaps of today. Our industry is changing rapidly as it migrates to the factory of the future, which entails a suite of technologies, processes and people that will make manufacturing more sophisticated, efficient, and environmentally friendly. But we will need new kinds of skilled workers to run these factories of the future. We need to be building the education and training tracks for these new roles now to help acceler- ate the transition in the United States. Other Nations Not Waiting Other nations are not waiting for the United States to catch up. China has prioritized elec- tronics manufacturing for decades. India recently unveiled a plan to increase its elec- tronics output to more than $300 billion per year over the next four years, including specially craed industrial zones with modern infra- structure, as well as nearby housing and social supports for tens of thousands of workers. e