A microchip crisis? It may sound like a modern version of the classic public radio reading of the War of the Worlds where people ended up taking to the streets taking it for granted. However, in this case, it is real. Microchips are more than 60 years old, and over time they have become smaller, more efficient, faster and much cheaper.
The result? They began to be used in much more than anyone can imagine: Computers, of course; phones, of course; refrigerators and appliances, no doubt; remote controls, inside; cars, of course; smart watches and headphones, sure; Neutonic Band, too. And this list grows and grows every year, with all the many objects in great demand and use in our daily lives, since these small inventions control any electronic device that requires it with the logical programming with which they were designed.
The question is: what is a microchip crisis?
For this you need to understand some other factors. Due to the small size of its structure, understanding that some modern microchips have 134 million transistors in each square millimeter, the need for an extremely careful and delicate manufacturing process is indispensable. Microchip manufacturing facilities require hygiene conditions several orders of magnitude higher than what a human operating room has. In addition to that they must produce several million microchips per month. And the construction of this type of facility requires at least one or two years, not counting the very rapid pace at which the microchips are reduced in size.
We already have a series of conditions for our crisis. High production complexity, slow and expensive capacity growth, growing demand for these electronics. Let's add a couple of explosive ingredients to the mix, which are also accompanied by one another: a pandemic that stopped the world in its tracks and the enormous demand for computers, headphones and cameras that this pandemic brought with it: millions of students around the world taking online classes, millions of people having face-to-face meetings and working from home, many needing to purchase one or two more computers to accomplish this. The result? Our microchip crisis.
Because of all this, huge companies like General Motors have been forced to delay car production, cutting back on features ranging from the luxury of an in-vehicle wireless charger to vehicle emissions monitoring. Sony, with the great launch of its most recent video game console and its availability that for months has been seen in the lower margins. And the list is endless.
And thanks to this, our new sleep technology was also affected, since our microchips fall into the category of silicones affected by the crisis, causing the production of Neutonic Bands to slow down due to lack of availability of components. in all local markets.
The cure? Only time.
According to the experts, as the facilities where they are produced are updated, the demand decreases, the market normalizes and the processes and production chains reach their delayed goals, we will gradually see the return of the usual availability of these indispensable components in modern life. And who knows? We may be witnessing the arrival of a new generation of microchips that could revolutionize the way our devices work.
