Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1484263
18 PCB007 MAGAZINE I NOVEMBER 2022 Aer a multi-year advocacy effort, the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act has been enacted and the funding is now in place for its implemen- tation. At a time in which it is easy to be cyni- cal about Washington, the CHIPS and Science Act is further proof that U.S. political leaders can come together on a bipartisan basis and do big things. Notably, the U.S. is not alone in seeking to strengthen its domestic semiconductor indus- try. Governments globally are marshaling resources and policy mechanisms to make their own semiconductor industries more competi- tive in the global marketplace. IPC is heavily engaged in Brussels where the European Union is making progress in the Rallying Around a Robust Ecosystem enactment of its own Chips Act. Our message to European policymakers is not unlike the message that IPC has communicated to U.S. officials: Advanced packaging must be central to any initiative to bolster a domestic semicon- ductor industry because advanced packaging is driving semiconductor advancements. Unfortunately, not everybody has gotten the memo. I still meet far too many people work- ing on technology policy who ask me: What is advanced packaging? Why do we even need these capabilities? Isn't this what the chip fab- ricators do? ankfully, these questions are becoming the exception rather than the rule, and that is a testament to the industry's collective efforts to One World, One Industry by Dr. John Mitchell, IPC PRESIDENT AND CEO