Chip shortage signals need for more innovative semiconductors

In 2022, the world celebrated the 75th anniversary of the transistor, and the 65th anniversary of the integrated circuit. Since then, we have evolved from a single amplifier block to a 3000-transistor wafer in the 1970s to a nanometer process that can accommodate 50 billion transistors onto a chip the size of a fingernail. In the last 35 years, the semiconductor market grew from over US$30 billion to more than US$600 billion, creating millions of employment opportunities.