Il mondo dei chip: progressi tecnologici e vulnerabilità di una filiera strategica

After a brief coverage of the developments that led to the birth of microelectronics, the note describes the economic and physical laws that have guided the growth of this technological segment for over fifty years. Following the laws of Moore and Dennard, the complexity of microelectronic chips has increased dramatically, reaching the point of incorporating miniaturized components, now nanometric in size, comparable in number to the stars in a galaxy. However, during these decades microelectronics has not only pursued the path of miniaturization. Alongside digital technologies, diversified platforms have developed that allow for the creation of equally essential chips in non-digital product segments. The actors of all these production chains are distributed over the various continents and are strongly interconnected. While much of the advanced digital chip manufacturing is in Asia, most of their design resides in the United States while European companies are at the forefront of sensor, industrial and automotive chips. However, the recent pandemic crisis and rising geopolitical tensions have highlighted how the lack of just one chip can disrupt the production of essential goods. Therefore, the governments of advanced economies are implementing initiatives to logistically relocate manufacturing sites and to strengthen local technological capabilities with the aim of protecting the economies from international crises. Europe too is moving in this direction but, in order to be effective, it is increasingly urgent to solve some weaknesses in the European political construction which also in this field limit the role of our continent on the global scene.