in high-technology manufacturing of components for information and photovoltaic systems, there has been a long-term trend away from mechanical production and toward production using chemical processes however, many high-technology industries, such as the microelectronics industry, still have surprisingly little strength in chemical processing and engineering. the united states has a special advantage over its international competitors - its chemical engineering research community leads the world in size and sophistication. our competence in chemical processing can be exploited to: (1) regain leadership in areas where the initiative in manufacturing technology has passed to japan; and (2) maintain or increase leadership in areas of u. s. technological strength. the manufacturing methods used to produce integrated circuits, interconnections, optical fiber, recording media, and photovoltaics use individual processes designed as batch operations. since chemical reactions and processes are used in the manufacture of this broad array of materials, chemical engineers can play a significant role in improving manufacturing processes and techniques