Manufacturing advanced technology products, such as semiconductor chips and batteries, is not just about churning out the same thing repeatedly without change. Innovations in materials, processes, and design driven by lessons learned on the manufacturing floor enhance product engineering every bit as much as design and product R&D do.

America may continue to bring home Nobel Prizes, but increasingly, others are building and scaling the technologies enabled by our inventions. Bridging the “lab-to-fab” gap, as touted by the 2023 CHIPS Act, is essential but not nearly enough. We have seen first-mover advantages such as flat-panel displays and electric vehicles slip away from our hands. Sustained technology leadership requires excellence in manufacturing at every level, from components to systems. Manufacturing as a discipline itself merits dedicated R&D and policy. This is nowhere more apparent than in the semiconductor industry.

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Initiatives like the Microelectronics Commons, which aims to accelerate the passage of semiconductor innovation from lab to fab by building and sharing domestic prototyping facilities, are essential for success, as are programs for training and retraining the domestic workforce required for scaling. Creating a favorable scaling environment through deliberate ecosystem building, including the judicious application of export and import controls, rewarding scaling with special purpose tax credits, and removing overburdensome regulations are also critical success enablers, as is measuring whether scaling is working—and adjusting as needed when global competitors change course.

Read full article, 'Let’s Put the ‘Tech’ into Military Technology Policy.'