The transition to renewable energy and transportation will be enabled by advancements in digital technology and semiconductor materials, former US vice-president Al Gore said at the opening of this week's Semicon industry conference.
"For decades we have marvelled at the development of ever smaller and more power efficient and powerful semiconductors," he said. "These advances have also empowered rapid cost reduction curves for solar panels, electric vehicles and batteries, and many other new advances that we are going to need to build a sustainable future."
He also highlighted the role of compound semiconductor silicon carbide in increasing the driving range of Tesla's electric vehicles. Compound semiconductors are the next generation of semiconductor materials that combine two elements, such as gallium arsenide, indium phosphide and gallium nitride. They are expected to be integral to the roll-out of next-generation 5G telecom networks and other cutting edge technologies. And artificial intelligence and cloud computing will be critical to the development of smart grid technology.
Gore also acknowledged the challenges faced by the industry in finding ways to reduce the energy intensity of data centres and artificial intelligence training.
The conference comes at a challenging time for the semiconductor industry, as the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the trade and technology tensions between the US and China hamper growth. Semiconductor revenues fell sharply last year but are forecast to rise by 3.3pc in 2020 to $453bn, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association. And looking longer-term, governments and private-sector firms are ramping up investment in semiconductor development, with Chinese companies shoring up funding as their customers look to secure supply in response to US restrictions on Chinese suppliers, and the UK government doled out further grants last month to further collaborative efforts across the country to build regional semiconductor supply chains.
This year marks the first time in the event's 50-year history that it is being held online — a feat that in itself is only made possible with the use of a quintillion transistors (1,000,000,000,000,000,000), according to Gary Dickerson, chief executive of Applied Materials.
