【英文】BCG报告：对华贸易限制如何结束美国在半导体领域的领导地位（42页）

英文研究报告 2020年08月31日 07:00 管理员

As digitally connected electronic systems become increasingly crucial for managing advanced weapons systems and critical infrastructure and information, the availability of trusted semiconductor suppliers that can deliver economically viable, reliable, and secured components will become even more important for national security. To this end, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the R&D arm of the DoD, is spearheading a multiyear Electronics Resurgence Initiative. The program focuses on semiconductor design and fundamental technology development for military use through public-private partnerships with US companies. In parallel, the DoD is championing programs such as the Trusted and Assured Microelectronics initiative, which has the second-largest budget among 90 DoD R&D programs for 2020, to secure the manufacturing layer of the value chain used for domestic supply.

Indeed, the US semiconductor industry owes its global leadership to technological excellence and product innovations that resulted from massive R&D investments. Semiconductors are highly complex products produced from highly advanced manufacturing processes. Improvements often require breakthroughs in hard science that take many years to achieve. The US semiconductor industry has invested $312 billion in R&D over the past ten years, and $39 billion in 2018 alone—almost double the rest of the world’s combined level of investment in semiconductor R&D. For its part, the US government invests significantly in foundational research, which helps bridge the chasm between academic breakthroughs and new commercial products. However, government investment has been flat or declining in the US for many years in comparison with that of other countries. (See “Winning the Future: A Blueprint for Sustained U.S. Leadership in Semiconductor Technology”, Semiconductor Industry Association, April 2019.)