cASE STUDY THE GLOBAL CHIP SHORTAGE Silicon chips, which are the basis for integrated electronic circuits, have become more and more important in our world, as not only producers of small electronic devices, but also industries like automotive manufacturing, industrial machinery, and medical devices are increasingly dependent on chips. For this reason, the global chip shortage that took place between 2020 and 2023 had a great impact on industrial production all over the world. This shortage was the result of a series of interconnected events such as: of goods. As a consequence, chips were accumulated in warehouses instead of being sold, thus reducing the Western supplies. Moreover, the war which broke out after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, led to an exponential increase in the cost of gas, which is very important for industrial production, and to a reduction of the supplies, slowing down the chip production and increasing its cost. Covid-19 pandemic: the Covid pandemic caused a huge growth in the demand of electronic devices due to the rapid increase of remote work and learning. At the same time, lockdowns and factory shutdowns caused production to slow down, while supplies were progressively reduced and sold out; problems in manufacturing: in 2021, long periods of drought affected Taiwan, where a great number of chip manufacturing industries lie, and made it difficult for the factories to get the pure water needed for chip fabrication; in the same year, a fire in a major chip factory in Japan further increased the shortage in the chip supplies; How is the problem being solved? The 2020-2023 chip shortage made the importance of the chip industry more evident than it was before. Building new semiconductor factories, spreading them across different regions, expanding existing ones, and developing new technologies and materials to reduce the dependence on traditional silicon-based chips are some of the possible actions that can be undertaken to avoid chip shortages in the future. geopolitical factors: trade tensions, such as those between the USA and China, led to a fall in the export Adapted from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ 2020%E2%80%932023_global_chip_shortage 23 Answer the questions. 1. Why are silicon chips so important in our world? 2. Why did the chip demand increase during the Covid-19 pandemic? 3. Why, on the other hand, was it difficult to produce chips during the pandemic? 4. What were the major problems which affected some of the most important chip factories in the world? 5. What were the consequences on trade of the tensions between China and the USA? good: bene shutdown: chiusura supply: fornitura 124 ELEcTRONIcS AND ELEcTROTEcHNOLOGY 6. What were the production problems connected to the war in Ukraine? 7. What did the 2020-2023 chip shortage make clear? 8. What are the possible solutions to avoid more shortages in the future?