Page 10 - EngineerIT September 2022

ICT

Semiconductors and software

leading the path to sustainability

By Patrick Morgan, Corporate VP, Automotive and Sustainable Energy Analog Devices

SUSTAINABILITY CHALLENGE So, secondly, the scope. Certainly, the scope is global. We can improve our local
We have heard a lot about sustainability, environment, but to truly make the world a better place, we must think and operate
but what is it, really? The current globally. This means we can develop our technology in a way that transcends national
definition of sustainability in the Oxford boundaries and politics, but still operate within the value structures that we have as
English Dictionary is “The property of a society. As engineers, we want our technology to be used globally and this means
being environmentally sustainable; the understanding the business, not just the technology.
degree to which a process or enterprise Which leads to the last aspect, balance. Sustainability implies achieving a balance
is able to be maintained or continued between the environment, social equity, and the economy. We live in a world where our
while avoiding the long-term depletion technology creates value, but only if people have access to it. And from an economic
of natural resources.” This is a complex perspective, the reality is that consumer buying patterns are changing, and in fact, any
concept, and there are three aspects product seen as “green” can charge a value premium above equivalent “non-green”
worth talking about. products. Food is one example, and companies like Whole Foods are built to capitalise on
First, the impact. In simplest terms, the green premium. But it’s not stopping there. Sustainability can add to the value that
sustainability is about our children and our technology can create, and cars, semi-conductors and software are next.
our grandchildren, and the world we will
leave them. Semi-conductors and software are more important than ever before
We often talk about the environment The role of semiconductors in our lives is becoming very well known. The COVID-19
as if it were a separate thing, but the pandemic shocked many industries around the world, and now, as the world emerges
reason it matters is because we all share beyond the pandemic, we see a sharp ramp-up in consumer demand spanning from
it. In actuality, it’s hard to imagine a more consumer to automotive and beyond. Supplies are tight, costs are going up, and markets
important impact. And as engineers, are volatile. The semi-conductor industry is on a major rebound, growing at 26% year
isn’t that the point of why we make over year, now passing more than $600B of yearly revenue.
technology? —to make the world a That’s nearly $100 per year for every person on Earth.
better place. Perhaps this sounds naïve, Does this remarkable growth mean that a drop is coming? That is unclear. However,
but only if we don’t consider the next semi-conductors have proven to be highly resilient through economic cycles in the past.
two aspects. In fact, over the past three decades, semi-conductor growth has averaged more than

Semi-conductor market size worldwide from 1990 to 2022 (in billion US dollars)

EngineerIT | September 2022 | 8