Reshoring Chip Industry Risks Failure With Just More Fabs

By Alan Patterson, EETimes (March 7, 2022)

Reviving U.S. semiconductor production, at the apex of the electronics industry, is unlikely to succeed without also rebuilding the more basic domestic ecosystem of companies in chip assembly and test, according to industry experts.

While U.S. legislators prepare to approve a $52 billion package of incentives to help revive the domestic semiconductor industry, there are concerns that most of the financial support will go to chipmakers that don’t need assistance while the dwindling U.S. assembly and test segment goes neglected.

“There is discussion right now on incentive programs,” Matt Kelly, the chief technologist at global electronics association IPC, said to EE Times. “There’s a lot of concern about just propping up the industry artificially and when the incentives go away, the whole game plan goes away. Unfortunately, that’s — at least from my perspective — where we are right now.”

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