INCHEON, South Korea—Researchers at Incheon National University have developed a cost-effective, eco-friendly technique for making high-efficiency chalcopyrite solar cells. 

Rarely does a major spending bill in Washington draw bipartisan support and yield immediate results. Behold the CHIPS and Science Act, which was signed into law by President Joe Biden Aug. 9. The act provides more than $52 billion in new funding to boost domestic research and manufacturing of semiconductors in the U.S.

Geopolitical forces are accelerating the growing trends of reshoring and foreign direct investment (FDI). Over the last decade, an expanding understanding of the routine logistics costs of offshoring drove an upward trend of reshoring.

KAOHSIUNG CITY, Taiwan—ASE Technology Holding Co. Ltd., one of the world’s largest semiconductor testing and packaging firms, plans to build a highly advanced smart factory here, as the industry grapples with a labor shortage.

They achieve this by removing residual organic metal-binding ligands from the transition metal oxide thin films, enhancing device stability and performance.

DURHAM, NC—Wolfspeed Inc. will build a state-of-the-art, multi-billion-dollar factory in Chatham County, North Carolina, to produce wide-bandgap semiconductors made from silicon carbide. The new factory will increase the company’s manufacturing capacity by more than 10 fold.

BOISE, ID—Micron Technology Inc. plans to invest approximately $15 billion through the end of the decade to construct a new factory here to make memory chips. This will be the first new memory manufacturing fab built in the U.S. in 20 years, ensuring a domestic supply of memory chips required for automobiles, data centers and other applications.