Get insights on today's labor market and educational resources for developing a strong engineering team while keeping you up to date on the latest news in the semiconductor world.
In 2019, we witnessed massive breakthroughs and seismic industry shifts that shaped how we work, live, travel, and share ideas. Major telecom carriers are offering 5G-capable devices for faster connections. Students and professionals can ride in fully autonomous shuttles or employees buses. And an anonymous but searchable tool for drug development and health studies can help aggregate trillions of data points for research and drug manufacturers.
As we wrap up another year, it’s time to look at what happened in the past quarter with a roundup of news, technological breakthroughs, and industry trends. This was a busy quarter, with legislation updates for scientific funding, an energy-efficient device that bends light, a new method for transforming silicon, and more. Let’s take a look at what’s happened in the last few months:
Most semiconductor engineers have a similar mission: planning, executing, delivering, and optimizing cutting-edge products. That takes meticulous and thoughtful foresight, planning, processes, and resources — all of which stem from sustained research and development (R&D) efforts.
While R&D is foundational in every chip company, recent profound shifts in the industry call for a different approach. KPMG’s 14th semiconductor outlook report found that due to challenging market conditions, R&D and innovation ranks first in strategic priority. Semiconductor companies are innovating and growing revenue in new ways without massive investments in scaling. Many are also in partnerships with suppliers, foundries, system, and fabless companies, which demands a focus on value chain coordination. Moreover, the need to push new products within the critical ramp period increases R&D costs.