Capital equipment not enough to revive US chip-making

After decades of decline, a new boost in US manufacturing is garnering considerable media attention. In particular, the semiconductor industry has been prioritized for US government support through the CHIPS Act initiative with some US$50 billion worth of state funding.

But what will be needed to increase and sustain US high-technology manufacturing? A serious resurgence of advanced manufacturing (chips being the most demanding) will require much more than investing in more sophisticated equipment in new plants.

It will require training a new generation of highly skilled personnel to operate such plants successfully. While increasingly sophisticated technology is key to much of competitive manufacturing, it is productive only with staff with very specialized training to operate in complex plant environments. Badly managed mechanization will hinder rather than promote value creation.

I learned from experience in semiconductor manufacturing. Early in my career at RCA, I was tasked with designing and operating one of the first silicon transistor factories to manufacture the 2N2102, a transistor I had developed for use in building computer and other electronic systems.

I outfitted the factory with equipment scaled from my laboratory. At the time, no commercial production equipment existed. For example, the optical lithographic equipment was built by the local photography shop in Somerville, New Jersey, for a few hundred dollars.

When production volume needed to increase, new equipment was required and we purchased new, more automated commercial production equipment then coming to market. I had hoped that such equipment would increase production volume and yields.

However, volume increased but product yields declined. The