Much ink has been devoted to the decline of semiconductor research and development in the United States. Pessimists say Bell Labs has thrown in the towel and pioneers like TI are following the path blazed by offshore foundries like TSMC. Optimists counter that Intel is still the world leader in next-gen semiconductors, IBM remains king in semi patents, IM Flash Technologies is making strides, HP Labs’ memristors could make semiconductor memory obsolete and U.S. universities and national labs are inventing game-changing chip technologies. They say research alliances between U.S. industry, labs and universities are filling the gaps.
Many EEs lament the loss of U.S. R&D leadership embodied by the announcement that Bell Labs will no longer perform semiconductor materials and devices research. Bell Labs led the world by pioneering not only transistors, but also many major breakthroughs in semiconductor materials and devices, including the MOSFET, the charge-coupled device, molecular beam epitaxy, electron beam lithography, photovoltaic cells, the carbon-dioxide laser, the quantum cascade laser, the optical router and the first single-chip 32-bit microprocessor.
