Pub. 2 2021-2022 Issue 2

S emiconductors are essential when building next-generation vehicles because they are used in sensors and controllers. The cars cannot be built without them. How small are semiconductor chips? They are on a nanoscale, which means they are incredibly small. The prefix “nano” means 10. 9 Therefore, a nanometer is one-billionth of a meter. Semiconductors are 0.05 as big as human hair, and according to nano.gov, human hair is 80,000- 100,000 nanometers wide. These numbers are hard to relate to. An article for Forbes by Jim Handy, published Dec. 14, 2011, makes it easier. He said the ratio between a nanometer and a hair’s width is similar to the ratio between an inch and a mile. One surprising consequence of the pandemic and climate change has been the semiconductor chip shortage that began around February 2021 but was initially caused by the pandemic shutdown of March 2020. The pandemic caused an increased demand for electronics as people set up home offices and spent more leisure time at home, too. They bought computer components, home entertainment devices and video game consoles. That set up a competition for chips between the auto industry and the electronics industry. Renesas Electronics Corporation, a Japanese company that manufacturers semiconductors, had a fire at a key plant. Two notable customers who were affected by the fire include Ford Motor Company and Mitsubishi. A water shortage in Taiwan slowed chip production. Aquifers there are low because there were no typhoons in 2020, and the rainfall between January and the end of March was half of what Taiwan usually gets. According to the South China Morning Post, the water shortage in Taiwan could cause the chip shortage to continue until 2022. Some manufacturers were better prepared than others when the shortage began. Six Japanese carmakers, including Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and Mitsubishi, have learned from previous disruptions to stockpile important parts such as chips. Their policies allowed them to continue building cars temporarily; in contrast, U.S. manufacturers had to stop sooner. Most semiconductor chips (more than 80%) are built in Asia. Only 12% are made in the U.S. That’s part of the reason why the Chip Shortages 18 Pub Yr 2 | Issue 2