Focusing on 22-28 nm chips is not at all irrational. Story of the jtmink about right. The reliability requirements for automotive chips are much higher, just as auto manufacturers set themselves more stringent EMC requirements than CE. Experience has also shown that this is not an unnecessary luxury. Sissors He also has a good argument for why for many chips the smallest process isn’t the most economical.

Personally, I would have liked to see the Netherlands play a bigger role in promoting chip development in Europe. Unfortunately, the average NL politician has little perspective on technological development. For years we played an important part in the development and eventually gave almost everything to the Far East because the people there wanted to work for less money for our luxury goods. At first only production, but development soon followed.

When I had to get samples of RF-ID chips 14 years ago, I had to go through various layers of management at NXP in the Netherlands, while in Singapore I had arranged them at lunchtime and received them promptly. If you want to be creatively decisive, you actually have to be where it happens, and the truth is that unfortunately that is no longer the case here in the Netherlands. In addition, high-quality technology in NL (Europe?) is usually paid (with exceptions) and this also translates into low growth of electrical engineering students at HBO and universities. When I went to university, a business student told me, I wouldn’t study electrical engineering if I could earn more money with much easier study. This has always stayed with me

Politicians should do more to bring chip production and development to the Netherlands. We make the best lithography equipment ourselves (ASML) so we have margin to negotiate and we have a lot to offer. So it was good to see on TV yesterday that ASML is now cultivating interest in technology development in schools. But it’s time for politicians to wake up.