Representatives from the Ministry of Investment also attended the forum, with sponsorship from Saudi Aramco, Yokogawa, JEOL, TRYSL TECH, and Cadence.

Semiconductor-powered technologies are transforming our world; they form the foundations of pivotal future-enabling fields such as energy generation, sensors and information technologies, among others. The integrated circuit (IC) chip has been at the heart of technological innovation, and semiconductors, the backbone of the third and fourth industrial revolutions.

Yet over the last two years, the world has experienced a severe global shortage of semiconductor chips — among the many challenges wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, and also as a result of the mass evolution of industries that employ semiconductor technology.

Currently, most of the IC chips are manufactured outside the Kingdom, mainly in North America, Europe and East Asia. As a result, companies are struggling to meet demands. The automotive industry is one example. Chips are needed to produce new cars, and the shift toward electric car production has increased the requirement for more IC chips than ever before. Demand for computers, laptops, tablets and electronics also skyrocketed with the exponential rise in people working remotely at the height of the pandemic. And the rise of 5G networks has significantly accelerated demand.

Dr. Xiaohang Li, KAUST associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, is one of nine KAUST faculty members who participated in the inaugural forum. Li said that in previous years, different governments were not active in investing in semiconductor manufacturing, development and research: “As a result, the manufacturing output remained relatively stagnant, while the demand went from linear to exponential."

He said that the pandemic highlighted the critical need to better secure the global supply chain for semiconductors, and that many countries, including Saudi Arabia, have realized that having a domestic supply chain is key to stable employment, operations and national security.

"Local semiconductor researchers and developers can play a very important role in diversifying the economy of Saudi Arabia,” said Li. “As the Kingdom is keen to develop projects in artificial intelligence (AI) and other crucial fields, advanced semiconductor technology becomes vital to their success; without semiconductor chips, there's no AI."

To this end, the forum was ideally timed to focus on a national strategic plan for advanced manufacturing and technological capability, with the goals of participating organizations aligned to the overall Saudi Vision 2030. The Kingdom anticipates many benefits from localizing electronic chips and semiconductor technology capabilities in diverse sectors, such as the digital economy, automotive industry, manufacturing and defense.

Distinguished Professor Donal Bradley, KAUST's Vice President for Research said, "We're truly delighted to partner with KACST and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in the Saudi Semiconductor Program, and support the growth of new industries in the Kingdom. KAUST started its future of semiconductors initiative last year to draw together the many strands of our comprehensive semiconductor research and innovation activities, which span a wide range of materials, deposition processes, characterization and fabrication techniques, devices and systems, and multiple applications."