The Chinese Academy of Engineering’s information and electronics division has published its thirteen challenges for 2022, a snapshot of where the field’s hard problems sit.
Chips and optics
Microelectronics: 3nm process enters production this year and 2nm is on the roadmap, but equipment, materials and EDA/IP remain dominated by a few international firms — new devices, structures, materials, processes and packaging advancing together is the way through. Optoelectronics needs ultrafast, low-power, high-density photonic integration. Optical engineering faces multi-band, multi-dimensional sensing and imaging, and the question of how to make it networked, automated, chip-scale and intelligent.
Metrology and instruments: the new national measurement system has started, but ultra-precision measurement for lithography machines, aero-engines and machine tools — and digital measurement for manufacturing, healthcare and smart cities — still needs breakthroughs.
Networks and security
Networking: 5G’s vertical integration with industries is the near-term grind, 6G research is accelerating, and the internet itself faces unprecedented demands — massive capacity, wide coverage, reliability, green operation and low cost, all at once. Cybersecurity must handle legacy threats and a dissolving network perimeter, detect the unknown unknowns in dynamic environments, and reconcile data security with data use — risk reduction and enablement have to advance together. Underwater acoustic engineering aims at autonomous grasp of underwater information in a changeable ocean, and electromagnetic compatibility is now a constraint on every intelligent system’s safe operation.
Computing and application
Control theory faces complex industrial systems whose causal models are unclear; cognition research is fusing brain science with AI, and breaking the von Neumann architecture with compute-in-memory devices is the route past the power wall. Computer systems need new theory for post-Moore scaling, quantum and neuronic frontiers, and software-defined, scenario-driven base software. Applications must interconnect heterogeneous systems across industry, agriculture, energy, finance, transport, education and health. And emergency response needs a national data platform that pulls medical, police, transport, environmental and energy data together for early warning and fast reaction.
Republished for information. The original text has not been independently verified and does not necessarily reflect our views.
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