--- title: Rethinking Rare Earth Metals In Semiconductors Supply Chains description: University of Michigan researchers, collaborating with Imec, are working on a project called "Common Earth" that seeks alternatives to rare earth elements,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/rethinking-rare-earth-metals-in-semiconductors-supply-chains-01iukmbk8 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Rethinking Rare Earth Metals In Semiconductors Supply Chains | daily.dev og:description: University of Michigan researchers, collaborating with Imec, are working on a project called "Common Earth" that seeks alternatives to rare earth elements,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/rethinking-rare-earth-metals-in-semiconductors-supply-chains-01iukmbk8 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/01iUkMBK8.png og:image:alt: Rethinking Rare Earth Metals In Semiconductors Supply Chains og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Rethinking Rare Earth Metals In Semiconductors Supply Chains **[IEEE Spectrum](https://daily.dev/sources/ieeespectrum)** · 8 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary University of Michigan researchers, collaborating with Imec, are working on a project called "Common Earth" that seeks alternatives to rare earth elements, hafnium, and PFAS chemicals used in chip manufacturing. Two lead researchers discuss why these materials are geopolitically and environmentally risky (citing hafnium's dependence on nuclear-industry zirconium mining and a neon gas price spike tied to Ukrainian steel production), and describe early efforts including nitrogen-based precursors to replace fluorine, salt-based alternatives to hafnium, novel filtration for PFAS capture, and chiplet-based architectures to reduce single-source design dependency. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [IEEE Spectrum's Top Rare Earth Elements Stories of 2025](https://daily.dev/posts/ieee-spectrum-s-top-rare-earth-elements-stories-of-2025-ou2uo5myx) · IEEE Spectrum · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [A solid-state “atomic channel” for separating rare earth elements](https://daily.dev/posts/a-solid-state-atomic-channel-for-separating-rare-earth-elements-rrsk6cg7e) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [A Looming Rare Earth Shortage Threatens Critical Tech](https://daily.dev/posts/a-looming-rare-earth-shortage-threatens-critical-tech-ceejn20ot) · IEEE Spectrum · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Breaking down rare earth element magnets for recycling](https://daily.dev/posts/breaking-down-rare-earth-element-magnets-for-recycling-lrtwsxgqp) · Ars Technica · 3 upvotes · 0 comments - [New Tantalum Process Could Ease Manufacturing of Superconducting Quantum Chips](https://daily.dev/posts/new-tantalum-process-could-ease-manufacturing-of-superconducting-quantum-chips-q4sfn6mba) · The Quantum Insider · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#hardware](https://daily.dev/tags/hardware), [#science](https://daily.dev/tags/science), [#supply-chain](https://daily.dev/tags/supply-chain) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/rethinking-rare-earth-metals-in-semiconductors-supply-chains-01iukmbk8) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Rethinking Rare Earth Metals In Semiconductors Supply Chains","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/rethinking-rare-earth-metals-in-semiconductors-supply-chains-01iukmbk8","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/rethinking-rare-earth-metals-in-semiconductors-supply-chains-01iukmbk8"},"datePublished":"2026-08-15T13:04:54.901Z","dateModified":"2026-08-15T13:05:55.413Z","description":"University of Michigan researchers, collaborating with Imec, are working on a project called \"Common Earth\" that seeks alternatives to rare earth elements,...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/83072bbf6ecdd428d9ddbb6f8bd155a7?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/83072bbf6ecdd428d9ddbb6f8bd155a7?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"IEEE Spectrum","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"IEEE Spectrum","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/b123f5e8420e492ab36f6adb30c1793a","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/ieeespectrum"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/rethinking-rare-earth-metals-in-semiconductors-supply-chains-01iukmbk8","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"hardware,science,supply-chain","timeRequired":"PT8M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"IEEE Spectrum","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/ieeespectrum"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Rethinking Rare Earth Metals In Semiconductors Supply Chains"}]} ```