The crisis of the chips that started in 2020 and lasted until well into 2023 was the result of a perfect storm. The Covid-19 pandemia triggered the demand for electronic devices, and, at the same time, at the same time, degraded production capacity of many companies. In addition, the commercial war between the US and China, the severe climatic events and several fires in critical facilities overlap until the global distribution chain of integrated circuits were almost fought.
Now, in full 2025, we are in a very different situation. The scarcity of semiconductors has been left behind, but according to a report prepared by the consultant PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) is maturing a new crisis with the ability to reach its peak in 2035. A crisis that can presumably end with one third of the global chip supply in a decade. There are ten years left, it is true, but probably its first effects will be presented much earlier.
Serious droughts are already committing copper mining
The PWC report holds something very important: if the weather continues to evolve as it has done during the last decade and the droughts are aggravated by the manufacture of integrated circuits will resent drastically. And it will do so because copper mining depends inevitably on available water resources. According to the CSIRO organization (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation), The National Science Agency of Australia, to obtain 19 kg of copper it is necessary to use about 1,600 liters of water.
These figures clearly illustrate the deep dependence of water copper mining. According to the International Copper Association, almost 28 million tons of this chemical element are consumed annually, and presumably this figure will increase a lot over the next few years. As we can intuit, to process this amount of copper it is necessary to use a lot of water, and this resource is increasingly scarce due to the effects of climate change. In fact, PWC estimates that semiconductor production will reduce 58% in 2050 If the weather continues to evolve as it is doing now.
The production of semiconductors will reduce 58% in 2050 if the weather continues to evolve as it is doing now
This forecast does not invite us at all to be optimistic, especially in a context in which chips are increasingly important and their demand does not cease to increase. Copper is used for many other things, but its role in the integrated circuit industry is essential. And it is because its physicochemical and electrical properties make it ideal to participate in the manufacture of interconnections within the integrated circuits, as well as in the production of all types of wiring and printed circuit plates (PCB).
Its most appreciated properties are its high electrical conductivity, its outstanding thermal conductivity, its ductility and its corrosion resistance. For several decades, aluminum occupied the place in the chips industry in which copper now resides, but this last metal finally managed to impose itself, although it was not easy. His problem was that he could leak in silicon. This process is known as Dissemination of copper in siliconand it is similar to the electromigration that we are talking about in this other article to explain why this last phenomenon represents a threat to our electronic devices.
In any case, during the diffusion the copper atoms move and infiltrate the crystalline structure of the silicon, degrading it and conditioning its physicochemical properties. Fortunately, IBM found the solution to this problem in 1998. His researchers realized that it was possible to put a lining for copper interconnections capable of acting as a barrier, and, therefore, of preventing copper atoms from infiltrating the silicon. This strategy was so effective that the semiconductor industry adopted it and has maintained it so far.
Imagen | TSMC
More information | SCMP
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