US leadership loss in microelectronics could seriously impact aerospace applications

The authors analyse changes in US and Japanese semiconductor industry. They consider how changes in the industry have affected, and will continue to affect, aerospace design engineers. The emphasis is on the advanced microelectronic products. Attention is focused on the high reliability and extended temperature range devices as well as on the full military specification and radiation-hardened (rad-hard) parts. It is found that, in 1989, Japanese firms made almost 50% of worldwide semiconductor sales, compared to less than 40% for all North American companies. Furthermore, in 1990, 90% of all dynamic random access memory chips were made by Japanese firms. The Japanese are also ahead of the US in some of the critical microelectronic R&D areas such as GaAs rad-hard devices.<>