In the News: US Electronics Reshoring Plan Risks Missing the Boat

Reviving the US semiconductor industry will require balanced investment in the entire electronics ecosystem, including assembly and test, as well as printed circuit boards (PCBs), according to industry executives.

While U.S. legislators prepare to approve a $52 billion package of incentives to help shore up the domestic semiconductor industry, there are concerns that most of the financial support will go to very profitable chipmakers that don’t need assistance while the struggling PCB segment is overlooked.

“There needs to be a balance,” says Dan Weber, executive vice president of PCB maker TTM Technologies, in an interview with EE Times. “If you go back to the year 2000, you had 26 percent of the world’s PCBs manufactured in the US. Today there’s only 4 percent. Back in 2000, there were 2,000 manufacturers as well. And today you’re looking at 150. So, there’s no balance.”

Read the full story on the EE Times website.