Foundry model
Encyclopedia
In microelectronics
, the foundry model refers to the separation of a semiconductor fabrication plant operation from an integrated circuit
design
operation, into separate companies or business units.
), these Integrated Device Manufacturer
s (IDMs) are not alone in the marketplace
. Economic forces have led to the existence of many companies that only design devices, known as fabless semiconductor companies
, as well as merchant foundries that only manufacture devices under contract
by other companies, without designing them.
IC production facilities are expensive to build and maintain. Unless they can be kept at nearly full utilization, they will become a drain on the finances of the company that owns them. The foundry model
uses two methods to avoid these costs: Fabless companies avoid costs by not owning such facilities. Merchant foundries, on the other hand, find work from the worldwide pool of fabless companies, and by careful scheduling
, pricing
, and contracting keep their plants at full utilization.
parameter
s, precise understanding of the manufacturing processes being used, and the occasional need to redesign. These manufacturers were involved in both the research and development
of manufacturing processes and the research and development of microcircuit design.
However, as manufacturing techniques developed, microelectronic devices became more standardised allowing them to be used by more than a single manufacturer. This standardization allowed design to be split from manufacture. A design that obeyed the appropriate design rules could be manufactured by different companies that had compatible manufacturing methods. An important development that allowed this was the introduction of advances in electronic design automation
(EDA), which allowed circuit designers to exchange design data with other designers using different foundries.
Because of the separation of manufacture and design, new types of companies were founded. One type of company is called a fabless semiconductor company. These companies do not have any semiconductor manufacturing capability but rather contracted production from a manufacturer. This manufacturer is called a merchant foundry. The fabless company concentrates on the research and development of an IC-product; the foundry concentrates on fabricating and testing
the physical product. If the foundry does not have any semiconductor design capability, it is called a pure-play semiconductor foundry.
An absolute separation into fabless and foundry companies is not necessary. Some companies continue to exist which perform both operations and benefit from the close coupling of their skills. Some companies manufacture some of their own designs and contract out to have others manufactured or designed, in cases where they see value
or seek special skills. The foundry model is a business vision that seeks to optimize productivity
.
service. The MOSIS service gave limited production-access to designers with limited means, such as students, researchers at a universities
, and engineers at small startups
. The designer submitted designs and these submissions were manufactured with the commercial company's extra capacity. Manufacturers could insert some wafers
for a MOSIS design into a collection of their own wafers when a processing step was compatible with both operations. The commercial company (serving as foundry) was already running the process so effectively were being paid by MOSIS for something they were already doing. A factory with excess capacity during slow periods could also run MOSIS designs in order to avoid having expensive capital
equipment standing idle.
Under-utilization of an expensive manufacturing plant could lead to the financial ruin of the owner, so selling surplus wafer capacity was a way to maximize the fab's utilization. Hence, economic factors created a climate
where fab operators wanted to sell surplus wafer-manufacturing capacity, and designers wanted to purchase manufacturing capacity rather than try to build it.
Although MOSIS opened the doors to some fabless customers, earning additional revenue
for the foundry and providing inexpensive service to the customer
, running a business around MOSIS production was difficult. The merchant foundries sold wafer capacity on a surplus basis, as a secondary business activity. Services to the customers were secondary to the commercial business, with little guarantee of support. The choice of merchant
dictated the design, development flow, and available techniques to the fabless customer. Merchant foundries might require proprietary
and non-portable preparation steps. Foundries concerned with protecting what they considered trade secret
s of their methodologies might only be willing to release data to designers after an onerous nondisclosure procedure.
. The distinction of 'dedicated' is in reference to the typical merchant foundry of the era, whose primary business activity was building and selling of its own IC-products. The dedicated foundry offers several key advantages to its customers: First, it does not sell finished IC-products into the supply
channel; thus a dedicated foundry will never compete directly with its fabless customers (obviating a common concern of fabless companies). Second, the dedicated foundry can scale production capacity to a customer's needs, offering low-quantity shuttle services in addition to full-scale production
lines. Finally, the dedicated foundry offers a "COT-flow" (customer owned tooling) based on industry-standard EDA
systems, whereas many IDM merchants required its customers to use proprietary (non-portable) development tools. The COT advantage gave the customer complete control over the design process, from concept to final design.
In microelectronics
, the foundry model refers to the separation of a semiconductor fabrication plant operation from an integrated circuit
design
operation, into separate companies or business units.
), these Integrated Device Manufacturer
s (IDMs) are not alone in the marketplace
. Economic forces have led to the existence of many companies that only design devices, known as fabless semiconductor companies
, as well as merchant foundries that only manufacture devices under contract
by other companies, without designing them.
IC production facilities are expensive to build and maintain. Unless they can be kept at nearly full utilization, they will become a drain on the finances of the company that owns them. The foundry model
uses two methods to avoid these costs: Fabless companies avoid costs by not owning such facilities. Merchant foundries, on the other hand, find work from the worldwide pool of fabless companies, and by careful scheduling
, pricing
, and contracting keep their plants at full utilization.
parameter
s, precise understanding of the manufacturing processes being used, and the occasional need to redesign. These manufacturers were involved in both the research and development
of manufacturing processes and the research and development of microcircuit design.
However, as manufacturing techniques developed, microelectronic devices became more standardised allowing them to be used by more than a single manufacturer. This standardization allowed design to be split from manufacture. A design that obeyed the appropriate design rules could be manufactured by different companies that had compatible manufacturing methods. An important development that allowed this was the introduction of advances in electronic design automation
(EDA), which allowed circuit designers to exchange design data with other designers using different foundries.
Because of the separation of manufacture and design, new types of companies were founded. One type of company is called a fabless semiconductor company. These companies do not have any semiconductor manufacturing capability but rather contracted production from a manufacturer. This manufacturer is called a merchant foundry. The fabless company concentrates on the research and development of an IC-product; the foundry concentrates on fabricating and testing
the physical product. If the foundry does not have any semiconductor design capability, it is called a pure-play semiconductor foundry.
An absolute separation into fabless and foundry companies is not necessary. Some companies continue to exist which perform both operations and benefit from the close coupling of their skills. Some companies manufacture some of their own designs and contract out to have others manufactured or designed, in cases where they see value
or seek special skills. The foundry model is a business vision that seeks to optimize productivity
.
service. The MOSIS service gave limited production-access to designers with limited means, such as students, researchers at a universities
, and engineers at small startups
. The designer submitted designs and these submissions were manufactured with the commercial company's extra capacity. Manufacturers could insert some wafers
for a MOSIS design into a collection of their own wafers when a processing step was compatible with both operations. The commercial company (serving as foundry) was already running the process so effectively were being paid by MOSIS for something they were already doing. A factory with excess capacity during slow periods could also run MOSIS designs in order to avoid having expensive capital
equipment standing idle.
Under-utilization of an expensive manufacturing plant could lead to the financial ruin of the owner, so selling surplus wafer capacity was a way to maximize the fab's utilization. Hence, economic factors created a climate
where fab operators wanted to sell surplus wafer-manufacturing capacity, and designers wanted to purchase manufacturing capacity rather than try to build it.
Although MOSIS opened the doors to some fabless customers, earning additional revenue
for the foundry and providing inexpensive service to the customer
, running a business around MOSIS production was difficult. The merchant foundries sold wafer capacity on a surplus basis, as a secondary business activity. Services to the customers were secondary to the commercial business, with little guarantee of support. The choice of merchant
dictated the design, development flow, and available techniques to the fabless customer. Merchant foundries might require proprietary
and non-portable preparation steps. Foundries concerned with protecting what they considered trade secret
s of their methodologies might only be willing to release data to designers after an onerous nondisclosure procedure.
. The distinction of 'dedicated' is in reference to the typical merchant foundry of the era, whose primary business activity was building and selling of its own IC-products. The dedicated foundry offers several key advantages to its customers: First, it does not sell finished IC-products into the supply
channel; thus a dedicated foundry will never compete directly with its fabless customers (obviating a common concern of fabless companies). Second, the dedicated foundry can scale production capacity to a customer's needs, offering low-quantity shuttle services in addition to full-scale production
lines. Finally, the dedicated foundry offers a "COT-flow" (customer owned tooling) based on industry-standard EDA
systems, whereas many IDM merchants required its customers to use proprietary (non-portable) development tools. The COT advantage gave the customer complete control over the design process, from concept to final design.
In microelectronics
, the foundry model refers to the separation of a semiconductor fabrication plant operation from an integrated circuit
design
operation, into separate companies or business units.
), these Integrated Device Manufacturer
s (IDMs) are not alone in the marketplace
. Economic forces have led to the existence of many companies that only design devices, known as fabless semiconductor companies
, as well as merchant foundries that only manufacture devices under contract
by other companies, without designing them.
IC production facilities are expensive to build and maintain. Unless they can be kept at nearly full utilization, they will become a drain on the finances of the company that owns them. The foundry model
uses two methods to avoid these costs: Fabless companies avoid costs by not owning such facilities. Merchant foundries, on the other hand, find work from the worldwide pool of fabless companies, and by careful scheduling
, pricing
, and contracting keep their plants at full utilization.
parameter
s, precise understanding of the manufacturing processes being used, and the occasional need to redesign. These manufacturers were involved in both the research and development
of manufacturing processes and the research and development of microcircuit design.
However, as manufacturing techniques developed, microelectronic devices became more standardised allowing them to be used by more than a single manufacturer. This standardization allowed design to be split from manufacture. A design that obeyed the appropriate design rules could be manufactured by different companies that had compatible manufacturing methods. An important development that allowed this was the introduction of advances in electronic design automation
(EDA), which allowed circuit designers to exchange design data with other designers using different foundries.
Because of the separation of manufacture and design, new types of companies were founded. One type of company is called a fabless semiconductor company. These companies do not have any semiconductor manufacturing capability but rather contracted production from a manufacturer. This manufacturer is called a merchant foundry. The fabless company concentrates on the research and development of an IC-product; the foundry concentrates on fabricating and testing
the physical product. If the foundry does not have any semiconductor design capability, it is called a pure-play semiconductor foundry.
An absolute separation into fabless and foundry companies is not necessary. Some companies continue to exist which perform both operations and benefit from the close coupling of their skills. Some companies manufacture some of their own designs and contract out to have others manufactured or designed, in cases where they see value
or seek special skills. The foundry model is a business vision that seeks to optimize productivity
.
service. The MOSIS service gave limited production-access to designers with limited means, such as students, researchers at a universities
, and engineers at small startups
. The designer submitted designs and these submissions were manufactured with the commercial company's extra capacity. Manufacturers could insert some wafers
for a MOSIS design into a collection of their own wafers when a processing step was compatible with both operations. The commercial company (serving as foundry) was already running the process so effectively were being paid by MOSIS for something they were already doing. A factory with excess capacity during slow periods could also run MOSIS designs in order to avoid having expensive capital
equipment standing idle.
Under-utilization of an expensive manufacturing plant could lead to the financial ruin of the owner, so selling surplus wafer capacity was a way to maximize the fab's utilization. Hence, economic factors created a climate
where fab operators wanted to sell surplus wafer-manufacturing capacity, and designers wanted to purchase manufacturing capacity rather than try to build it.
Although MOSIS opened the doors to some fabless customers, earning additional revenue
for the foundry and providing inexpensive service to the customer
, running a business around MOSIS production was difficult. The merchant foundries sold wafer capacity on a surplus basis, as a secondary business activity. Services to the customers were secondary to the commercial business, with little guarantee of support. The choice of merchant
dictated the design, development flow, and available techniques to the fabless customer. Merchant foundries might require proprietary
and non-portable preparation steps. Foundries concerned with protecting what they considered trade secret
s of their methodologies might only be willing to release data to designers after an onerous nondisclosure procedure.
. The distinction of 'dedicated' is in reference to the typical merchant foundry of the era, whose primary business activity was building and selling of its own IC-products. The dedicated foundry offers several key advantages to its customers: First, it does not sell finished IC-products into the supply
channel; thus a dedicated foundry will never compete directly with its fabless customers (obviating a common concern of fabless companies). Second, the dedicated foundry can scale production capacity to a customer's needs, offering low-quantity shuttle services in addition to full-scale production
lines. Finally, the dedicated foundry offers a "COT-flow" (customer owned tooling) based on industry-standard EDA
systems, whereas many IDM merchants required its customers to use proprietary (non-portable) development tools. The COT advantage gave the customer complete control over the design process, from concept to final design.
(1) Now acquired by GlobalFoundries
(1) Merged with CR Logic in 2008, reclassified as an IDM foundry
For ranking in worldwide Semiconductor sales leaders by year:
The cost to stay on the leading edge has steadily increased with each generation of chips. The financial strain is being felt by both large merchant foundries and their fabless customers. The cost of a new foundry exceeds $1 billion. These costs must be passed on to customers. Many merchant foundries have entered into joint ventures with their competitors in an effort to split research and design expenditures and fab-maintenance expenses.
Chip design companies sometimes avoid other companies' patents simply by purchasing the products from a licensed foundry with broad cross-license agreements with the patent owner.
Stolen design data is also a concern; data is rarely directly copied, because blatant copies are easily identified by distinctive features in the chip,
placed there either for this purpose or as a byproduct of the design process. However, the data including any procedure, process system, method of operation or concept may be sold to a competitor, who may save months or years of tedious reverse engineering
.
Microelectronics
Microelectronics is a subfield of electronics. As the name suggests, microelectronics relates to the study and manufacture of very small electronic components. Usually, but not always, this means micrometre-scale or smaller,. These devices are made from semiconductors...
, the foundry model refers to the separation of a semiconductor fabrication plant operation from an integrated circuit
Integrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...
design
Design
Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...
operation, into separate companies or business units.
Overview
Although many companies continue to both design and manufacture integrated circuits (achieving efficiency through vertical integrationVertical integration
In microeconomics and management, the term vertical integration describes a style of management control. Vertically integrated companies in a supply chain are united through a common owner. Usually each member of the supply chain produces a different product or service, and the products combine to...
), these Integrated Device Manufacturer
Integrated device manufacturer
An integrated device manufacturer is a semiconductor company which designs, manufactures, and sells integrated circuit products. As a classification, IDM is often used to differentiate between a company which handles semiconductor manufacturing in-house, and a fabless semiconductor company, which...
s (IDMs) are not alone in the marketplace
Marketplace
A marketplace is the space, actual, virtual or metaphorical, in which a market operates. The term is also used in a trademark law context to denote the actual consumer environment, ie. the 'real world' in which products and services are provided and consumed.-Marketplaces and street markets:A...
. Economic forces have led to the existence of many companies that only design devices, known as fabless semiconductor companies
Fabless semiconductor company
A fabless semiconductor company specializes in the design and sale of hardware devices and semiconductor chips while outsourcing the fabrication or "fab" of the devices to a specialized manufacturer called a semiconductor foundry...
, as well as merchant foundries that only manufacture devices under contract
Contract
A contract is an agreement entered into by two parties or more with the intention of creating a legal obligation, which may have elements in writing. Contracts can be made orally. The remedy for breach of contract can be "damages" or compensation of money. In equity, the remedy can be specific...
by other companies, without designing them.
IC production facilities are expensive to build and maintain. Unless they can be kept at nearly full utilization, they will become a drain on the finances of the company that owns them. The foundry model
Business model
A business model describes the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value...
uses two methods to avoid these costs: Fabless companies avoid costs by not owning such facilities. Merchant foundries, on the other hand, find work from the worldwide pool of fabless companies, and by careful scheduling
Scheduling (production processes)
Scheduling is an important tool for manufacturing and engineering, where it can have a major impact on the productivity of a process. In manufacturing, the purpose of scheduling is to minimize the production time and costs, by telling a production facility when to make, with which staff, and on...
, pricing
Pricing
Pricing is the process of determining what a company will receive in exchange for its products. Pricing factors are manufacturing cost, market place, competition, market condition, and quality of product. Pricing is also a key variable in microeconomic price allocation theory. Pricing is a...
, and contracting keep their plants at full utilization.
History
Originally, microelectronic devices were manufactured by companies that both designed and produced the devices. This was necessary because manufacturing involved tweakingTweaking
Tweaking refers to fine-tuning or adjusting a complex system, usually an electronic device. Tweaks are any small modifications intended to improve a system....
parameter
Parameter
Parameter from Ancient Greek παρά also “para” meaning “beside, subsidiary” and μέτρον also “metron” meaning “measure”, can be interpreted in mathematics, logic, linguistics, environmental science and other disciplines....
s, precise understanding of the manufacturing processes being used, and the occasional need to redesign. These manufacturers were involved in both the research and development
Research and development
The phrase research and development , according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, refers to "creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of...
of manufacturing processes and the research and development of microcircuit design.
However, as manufacturing techniques developed, microelectronic devices became more standardised allowing them to be used by more than a single manufacturer. This standardization allowed design to be split from manufacture. A design that obeyed the appropriate design rules could be manufactured by different companies that had compatible manufacturing methods. An important development that allowed this was the introduction of advances in electronic design automation
Electronic design automation
Electronic design automation is a category of software tools for designing electronic systems such as printed circuit boards and integrated circuits...
(EDA), which allowed circuit designers to exchange design data with other designers using different foundries.
Because of the separation of manufacture and design, new types of companies were founded. One type of company is called a fabless semiconductor company. These companies do not have any semiconductor manufacturing capability but rather contracted production from a manufacturer. This manufacturer is called a merchant foundry. The fabless company concentrates on the research and development of an IC-product; the foundry concentrates on fabricating and testing
Test method
A test method is a definitive procedure that produces a test result.A test can be considered as technical operation that consists of determination of one or more characteristics of a given product, process or service according to a specified procedure. Often a test is part of an experiment.The test...
the physical product. If the foundry does not have any semiconductor design capability, it is called a pure-play semiconductor foundry.
An absolute separation into fabless and foundry companies is not necessary. Some companies continue to exist which perform both operations and benefit from the close coupling of their skills. Some companies manufacture some of their own designs and contract out to have others manufactured or designed, in cases where they see value
Value (marketing)
The value of a product is the mental estimation a consumer makes of it. Formally it may be conceptualized as the relationship between the consumer's perceived benefits in relation to the perceived costs of receiving these benefits...
or seek special skills. The foundry model is a business vision that seeks to optimize productivity
Productivity
Productivity is a measure of the efficiency of production. Productivity is a ratio of what is produced to what is required to produce it. Usually this ratio is in the form of an average, expressing the total output divided by the total input...
.
MOSIS
The very first merchant foundries were part of the MOSISMOSIS
MOSIS is probably the oldest integrated circuit foundry service and one of the first Internet services other than supercomputing services and basic infrastructure such as E-mail or FTP....
service. The MOSIS service gave limited production-access to designers with limited means, such as students, researchers at a universities
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
, and engineers at small startups
Startup company
A startup company or startup is a company with a limited operating history. These companies, generally newly created, are in a phase of development and research for markets...
. The designer submitted designs and these submissions were manufactured with the commercial company's extra capacity. Manufacturers could insert some wafers
Wafer (electronics)
A wafer is a thin slice of semiconductor material, such as a silicon crystal, used in the fabrication of integrated circuits and other microdevices...
for a MOSIS design into a collection of their own wafers when a processing step was compatible with both operations. The commercial company (serving as foundry) was already running the process so effectively were being paid by MOSIS for something they were already doing. A factory with excess capacity during slow periods could also run MOSIS designs in order to avoid having expensive capital
Capital (economics)
In economics, capital, capital goods, or real capital refers to already-produced durable goods used in production of goods or services. The capital goods are not significantly consumed, though they may depreciate in the production process...
equipment standing idle.
Under-utilization of an expensive manufacturing plant could lead to the financial ruin of the owner, so selling surplus wafer capacity was a way to maximize the fab's utilization. Hence, economic factors created a climate
Climate
Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods...
where fab operators wanted to sell surplus wafer-manufacturing capacity, and designers wanted to purchase manufacturing capacity rather than try to build it.
Although MOSIS opened the doors to some fabless customers, earning additional revenue
Revenue
In business, revenue is income that a company receives from its normal business activities, usually from the sale of goods and services to customers. In many countries, such as the United Kingdom, revenue is referred to as turnover....
for the foundry and providing inexpensive service to the customer
Customer
A customer is usually used to refer to a current or potential buyer or user of the products of an individual or organization, called the supplier, seller, or vendor. This is typically through purchasing or renting goods or services...
, running a business around MOSIS production was difficult. The merchant foundries sold wafer capacity on a surplus basis, as a secondary business activity. Services to the customers were secondary to the commercial business, with little guarantee of support. The choice of merchant
Merchant
A merchant is a businessperson who trades in commodities that were produced by others, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be one of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant...
dictated the design, development flow, and available techniques to the fabless customer. Merchant foundries might require proprietary
Property
Property is any physical or intangible entity that is owned by a person or jointly by a group of people or a legal entity like a corporation...
and non-portable preparation steps. Foundries concerned with protecting what they considered trade secret
Trade secret
A trade secret is a formula, practice, process, design, instrument, pattern, or compilation of information which is not generally known or reasonably ascertainable, by which a business can obtain an economic advantage over competitors or customers...
s of their methodologies might only be willing to release data to designers after an onerous nondisclosure procedure.
Dedicated foundry
In 1987, the world's first dedicated merchant foundry opened its doors: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC)TSMC
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Limited or TSMC is the world's largest dedicated independent semiconductor foundry, with its headquarters and main operations located in the Hsinchu Science Park in Hsinchu, Taiwan.-Overview:...
. The distinction of 'dedicated' is in reference to the typical merchant foundry of the era, whose primary business activity was building and selling of its own IC-products. The dedicated foundry offers several key advantages to its customers: First, it does not sell finished IC-products into the supply
Supply (economics)
In economics, supply is the amount of some product producers are willing and able to sell at a given price all other factors being held constant. Usually, supply is plotted as a supply curve showing the relationship of price to the amount of product businesses are willing to sell.In economics the...
channel; thus a dedicated foundry will never compete directly with its fabless customers (obviating a common concern of fabless companies). Second, the dedicated foundry can scale production capacity to a customer's needs, offering low-quantity shuttle services in addition to full-scale production
Mass production
Mass production is the production of large amounts of standardized products, including and especially on assembly lines...
lines. Finally, the dedicated foundry offers a "COT-flow" (customer owned tooling) based on industry-standard EDA
Electronic design automation
Electronic design automation is a category of software tools for designing electronic systems such as printed circuit boards and integrated circuits...
systems, whereas many IDM merchants required its customers to use proprietary (non-portable) development tools. The COT advantage gave the customer complete control over the design process, from concept to final design.
Foundry sales leaders by year
- Pure-play semiconductor foundry is a company that does not offer a significant amount of IC products of its own design, but instead operates semiconductor fabrication plants focused on producing ICs for other companies.
- IDMIntegrated device manufacturerAn integrated device manufacturer is a semiconductor company which designs, manufactures, and sells integrated circuit products. As a classification, IDM is often used to differentiate between a company which handles semiconductor manufacturing in-house, and a fabless semiconductor company, which...
semiconductor foundry is where companies such as Texas Instruments, IBM, and Samsung join in to provide foundry services as long as there is no conflict of interest between relevant parties.
2010
| Rank | Company | Foundry Type | Country of origin | Revenue (million $USD United States dollar The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies.... ) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TSMC TSMC Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Limited or TSMC is the world's largest dedicated independent semiconductor foundry, with its headquarters and main operations located in the Hsinchu Science Park in Hsinchu, Taiwan.-Overview:... |
Pure-play | 13,332 | |
| 2 | UMC United Microelectronics Corporation UMC was founded as Taiwan's first semiconductor company in 1980 as a spin-off of the government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute .-Overview:... |
Pure-play | 3,824 | |
| 3 | Globalfoundries GLOBALFOUNDRIES GlobalFoundries Inc. is the world's third largest independent semiconductor foundry, with its headquarters located in Milpitas, California. GlobalFoundries was created by the divestiture of the manufacturing side of AMD on March 2, 2009, and was expanded through its merger with Chartered... |
Pure-play | 3,520 | |
| 4 | SMIC Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, is a semiconductor foundry in mainland China, providing integrated circuit manufacturing services at 350 nm to 45nm technologies... |
Pure-play | 1,554 | |
| 5 | Dongbu HiTek | Pure-play | 512 | |
| 6 | TowerJazz Tower Semiconductor Tower Semiconductor Ltd. , global specialty foundry leader and its fully owned U.S. subsidiary Jazz Semiconductor, operate collectively under the brand name TowerJazz, manufacturing integrated circuits with geometries ranging from 1.0 to 0.13-micron... |
Pure-play | 509 | |
| 7 | Vanguard Vanguard International Semiconductor Corporation Vanguard International Semiconductor Corporation is a specialized IC foundry service provider. It is founded in December 1994 in Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan, by Morris Chang... (VIS) |
Pure-play | 505 | |
| 8 | IBM IBM International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas... |
IDM | 500 | |
| 9 | MagnaChip | IDM | 410 | |
| 10 | Samsung Semiconductor Samsung Electronics Samsung Electronics is a South Korean multinational electronics and information technology company headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul... |
IDM | 390 |
2009~2007
As of 2009, the top 17 semiconductor foundries were:In microelectronics
Microelectronics
Microelectronics is a subfield of electronics. As the name suggests, microelectronics relates to the study and manufacture of very small electronic components. Usually, but not always, this means micrometre-scale or smaller,. These devices are made from semiconductors...
, the foundry model refers to the separation of a semiconductor fabrication plant operation from an integrated circuit
Integrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...
design
Design
Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...
operation, into separate companies or business units.
Overview
Although many companies continue to both design and manufacture integrated circuits (achieving efficiency through vertical integrationVertical integration
In microeconomics and management, the term vertical integration describes a style of management control. Vertically integrated companies in a supply chain are united through a common owner. Usually each member of the supply chain produces a different product or service, and the products combine to...
), these Integrated Device Manufacturer
Integrated device manufacturer
An integrated device manufacturer is a semiconductor company which designs, manufactures, and sells integrated circuit products. As a classification, IDM is often used to differentiate between a company which handles semiconductor manufacturing in-house, and a fabless semiconductor company, which...
s (IDMs) are not alone in the marketplace
Marketplace
A marketplace is the space, actual, virtual or metaphorical, in which a market operates. The term is also used in a trademark law context to denote the actual consumer environment, ie. the 'real world' in which products and services are provided and consumed.-Marketplaces and street markets:A...
. Economic forces have led to the existence of many companies that only design devices, known as fabless semiconductor companies
Fabless semiconductor company
A fabless semiconductor company specializes in the design and sale of hardware devices and semiconductor chips while outsourcing the fabrication or "fab" of the devices to a specialized manufacturer called a semiconductor foundry...
, as well as merchant foundries that only manufacture devices under contract
Contract
A contract is an agreement entered into by two parties or more with the intention of creating a legal obligation, which may have elements in writing. Contracts can be made orally. The remedy for breach of contract can be "damages" or compensation of money. In equity, the remedy can be specific...
by other companies, without designing them.
IC production facilities are expensive to build and maintain. Unless they can be kept at nearly full utilization, they will become a drain on the finances of the company that owns them. The foundry model
Business model
A business model describes the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value...
uses two methods to avoid these costs: Fabless companies avoid costs by not owning such facilities. Merchant foundries, on the other hand, find work from the worldwide pool of fabless companies, and by careful scheduling
Scheduling (production processes)
Scheduling is an important tool for manufacturing and engineering, where it can have a major impact on the productivity of a process. In manufacturing, the purpose of scheduling is to minimize the production time and costs, by telling a production facility when to make, with which staff, and on...
, pricing
Pricing
Pricing is the process of determining what a company will receive in exchange for its products. Pricing factors are manufacturing cost, market place, competition, market condition, and quality of product. Pricing is also a key variable in microeconomic price allocation theory. Pricing is a...
, and contracting keep their plants at full utilization.
History
Originally, microelectronic devices were manufactured by companies that both designed and produced the devices. This was necessary because manufacturing involved tweakingTweaking
Tweaking refers to fine-tuning or adjusting a complex system, usually an electronic device. Tweaks are any small modifications intended to improve a system....
parameter
Parameter
Parameter from Ancient Greek παρά also “para” meaning “beside, subsidiary” and μέτρον also “metron” meaning “measure”, can be interpreted in mathematics, logic, linguistics, environmental science and other disciplines....
s, precise understanding of the manufacturing processes being used, and the occasional need to redesign. These manufacturers were involved in both the research and development
Research and development
The phrase research and development , according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, refers to "creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of...
of manufacturing processes and the research and development of microcircuit design.
However, as manufacturing techniques developed, microelectronic devices became more standardised allowing them to be used by more than a single manufacturer. This standardization allowed design to be split from manufacture. A design that obeyed the appropriate design rules could be manufactured by different companies that had compatible manufacturing methods. An important development that allowed this was the introduction of advances in electronic design automation
Electronic design automation
Electronic design automation is a category of software tools for designing electronic systems such as printed circuit boards and integrated circuits...
(EDA), which allowed circuit designers to exchange design data with other designers using different foundries.
Because of the separation of manufacture and design, new types of companies were founded. One type of company is called a fabless semiconductor company. These companies do not have any semiconductor manufacturing capability but rather contracted production from a manufacturer. This manufacturer is called a merchant foundry. The fabless company concentrates on the research and development of an IC-product; the foundry concentrates on fabricating and testing
Test method
A test method is a definitive procedure that produces a test result.A test can be considered as technical operation that consists of determination of one or more characteristics of a given product, process or service according to a specified procedure. Often a test is part of an experiment.The test...
the physical product. If the foundry does not have any semiconductor design capability, it is called a pure-play semiconductor foundry.
An absolute separation into fabless and foundry companies is not necessary. Some companies continue to exist which perform both operations and benefit from the close coupling of their skills. Some companies manufacture some of their own designs and contract out to have others manufactured or designed, in cases where they see value
Value (marketing)
The value of a product is the mental estimation a consumer makes of it. Formally it may be conceptualized as the relationship between the consumer's perceived benefits in relation to the perceived costs of receiving these benefits...
or seek special skills. The foundry model is a business vision that seeks to optimize productivity
Productivity
Productivity is a measure of the efficiency of production. Productivity is a ratio of what is produced to what is required to produce it. Usually this ratio is in the form of an average, expressing the total output divided by the total input...
.
MOSIS
The very first merchant foundries were part of the MOSISMOSIS
MOSIS is probably the oldest integrated circuit foundry service and one of the first Internet services other than supercomputing services and basic infrastructure such as E-mail or FTP....
service. The MOSIS service gave limited production-access to designers with limited means, such as students, researchers at a universities
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
, and engineers at small startups
Startup company
A startup company or startup is a company with a limited operating history. These companies, generally newly created, are in a phase of development and research for markets...
. The designer submitted designs and these submissions were manufactured with the commercial company's extra capacity. Manufacturers could insert some wafers
Wafer (electronics)
A wafer is a thin slice of semiconductor material, such as a silicon crystal, used in the fabrication of integrated circuits and other microdevices...
for a MOSIS design into a collection of their own wafers when a processing step was compatible with both operations. The commercial company (serving as foundry) was already running the process so effectively were being paid by MOSIS for something they were already doing. A factory with excess capacity during slow periods could also run MOSIS designs in order to avoid having expensive capital
Capital (economics)
In economics, capital, capital goods, or real capital refers to already-produced durable goods used in production of goods or services. The capital goods are not significantly consumed, though they may depreciate in the production process...
equipment standing idle.
Under-utilization of an expensive manufacturing plant could lead to the financial ruin of the owner, so selling surplus wafer capacity was a way to maximize the fab's utilization. Hence, economic factors created a climate
Climate
Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods...
where fab operators wanted to sell surplus wafer-manufacturing capacity, and designers wanted to purchase manufacturing capacity rather than try to build it.
Although MOSIS opened the doors to some fabless customers, earning additional revenue
Revenue
In business, revenue is income that a company receives from its normal business activities, usually from the sale of goods and services to customers. In many countries, such as the United Kingdom, revenue is referred to as turnover....
for the foundry and providing inexpensive service to the customer
Customer
A customer is usually used to refer to a current or potential buyer or user of the products of an individual or organization, called the supplier, seller, or vendor. This is typically through purchasing or renting goods or services...
, running a business around MOSIS production was difficult. The merchant foundries sold wafer capacity on a surplus basis, as a secondary business activity. Services to the customers were secondary to the commercial business, with little guarantee of support. The choice of merchant
Merchant
A merchant is a businessperson who trades in commodities that were produced by others, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be one of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant...
dictated the design, development flow, and available techniques to the fabless customer. Merchant foundries might require proprietary
Property
Property is any physical or intangible entity that is owned by a person or jointly by a group of people or a legal entity like a corporation...
and non-portable preparation steps. Foundries concerned with protecting what they considered trade secret
Trade secret
A trade secret is a formula, practice, process, design, instrument, pattern, or compilation of information which is not generally known or reasonably ascertainable, by which a business can obtain an economic advantage over competitors or customers...
s of their methodologies might only be willing to release data to designers after an onerous nondisclosure procedure.
Dedicated foundry
In 1987, the world's first dedicated merchant foundry opened its doors: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC)TSMC
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Limited or TSMC is the world's largest dedicated independent semiconductor foundry, with its headquarters and main operations located in the Hsinchu Science Park in Hsinchu, Taiwan.-Overview:...
. The distinction of 'dedicated' is in reference to the typical merchant foundry of the era, whose primary business activity was building and selling of its own IC-products. The dedicated foundry offers several key advantages to its customers: First, it does not sell finished IC-products into the supply
Supply (economics)
In economics, supply is the amount of some product producers are willing and able to sell at a given price all other factors being held constant. Usually, supply is plotted as a supply curve showing the relationship of price to the amount of product businesses are willing to sell.In economics the...
channel; thus a dedicated foundry will never compete directly with its fabless customers (obviating a common concern of fabless companies). Second, the dedicated foundry can scale production capacity to a customer's needs, offering low-quantity shuttle services in addition to full-scale production
Mass production
Mass production is the production of large amounts of standardized products, including and especially on assembly lines...
lines. Finally, the dedicated foundry offers a "COT-flow" (customer owned tooling) based on industry-standard EDA
Electronic design automation
Electronic design automation is a category of software tools for designing electronic systems such as printed circuit boards and integrated circuits...
systems, whereas many IDM merchants required its customers to use proprietary (non-portable) development tools. The COT advantage gave the customer complete control over the design process, from concept to final design.
Foundry sales leaders by year
- Pure-play semiconductor foundry is a company that does not offer a significant amount of IC products of its own design, but instead operates semiconductor fabrication plants focused on producing ICs for other companies.
- IDMIntegrated device manufacturerAn integrated device manufacturer is a semiconductor company which designs, manufactures, and sells integrated circuit products. As a classification, IDM is often used to differentiate between a company which handles semiconductor manufacturing in-house, and a fabless semiconductor company, which...
semiconductor foundry is where companies such as Texas Instruments, IBM, and Samsung join in to provide foundry services as long as there is no conflict of interest between relevant parties.
2010
| Rank | Company | Foundry Type | Country of origin | Revenue (million $USD United States dollar The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies.... ) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TSMC TSMC Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Limited or TSMC is the world's largest dedicated independent semiconductor foundry, with its headquarters and main operations located in the Hsinchu Science Park in Hsinchu, Taiwan.-Overview:... |
Pure-play | 13,332 | |
| 2 | UMC United Microelectronics Corporation UMC was founded as Taiwan's first semiconductor company in 1980 as a spin-off of the government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute .-Overview:... |
Pure-play | 3,824 | |
| 3 | Globalfoundries GLOBALFOUNDRIES GlobalFoundries Inc. is the world's third largest independent semiconductor foundry, with its headquarters located in Milpitas, California. GlobalFoundries was created by the divestiture of the manufacturing side of AMD on March 2, 2009, and was expanded through its merger with Chartered... |
Pure-play | 3,520 | |
| 4 | SMIC Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, is a semiconductor foundry in mainland China, providing integrated circuit manufacturing services at 350 nm to 45nm technologies... |
Pure-play | 1,554 | |
| 5 | Dongbu HiTek | Pure-play | 512 | |
| 6 | TowerJazz Tower Semiconductor Tower Semiconductor Ltd. , global specialty foundry leader and its fully owned U.S. subsidiary Jazz Semiconductor, operate collectively under the brand name TowerJazz, manufacturing integrated circuits with geometries ranging from 1.0 to 0.13-micron... |
Pure-play | 509 | |
| 7 | Vanguard Vanguard International Semiconductor Corporation Vanguard International Semiconductor Corporation is a specialized IC foundry service provider. It is founded in December 1994 in Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan, by Morris Chang... (VIS) |
Pure-play | 505 | |
| 8 | IBM IBM International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas... |
IDM | 500 | |
| 9 | MagnaChip | IDM | 410 | |
| 10 | Samsung Semiconductor Samsung Electronics Samsung Electronics is a South Korean multinational electronics and information technology company headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul... |
IDM | 390 |
2009~2007
As of 2009, the top 17 semiconductor foundries were:In microelectronics
Microelectronics
Microelectronics is a subfield of electronics. As the name suggests, microelectronics relates to the study and manufacture of very small electronic components. Usually, but not always, this means micrometre-scale or smaller,. These devices are made from semiconductors...
, the foundry model refers to the separation of a semiconductor fabrication plant operation from an integrated circuit
Integrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...
design
Design
Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...
operation, into separate companies or business units.
Overview
Although many companies continue to both design and manufacture integrated circuits (achieving efficiency through vertical integrationVertical integration
In microeconomics and management, the term vertical integration describes a style of management control. Vertically integrated companies in a supply chain are united through a common owner. Usually each member of the supply chain produces a different product or service, and the products combine to...
), these Integrated Device Manufacturer
Integrated device manufacturer
An integrated device manufacturer is a semiconductor company which designs, manufactures, and sells integrated circuit products. As a classification, IDM is often used to differentiate between a company which handles semiconductor manufacturing in-house, and a fabless semiconductor company, which...
s (IDMs) are not alone in the marketplace
Marketplace
A marketplace is the space, actual, virtual or metaphorical, in which a market operates. The term is also used in a trademark law context to denote the actual consumer environment, ie. the 'real world' in which products and services are provided and consumed.-Marketplaces and street markets:A...
. Economic forces have led to the existence of many companies that only design devices, known as fabless semiconductor companies
Fabless semiconductor company
A fabless semiconductor company specializes in the design and sale of hardware devices and semiconductor chips while outsourcing the fabrication or "fab" of the devices to a specialized manufacturer called a semiconductor foundry...
, as well as merchant foundries that only manufacture devices under contract
Contract
A contract is an agreement entered into by two parties or more with the intention of creating a legal obligation, which may have elements in writing. Contracts can be made orally. The remedy for breach of contract can be "damages" or compensation of money. In equity, the remedy can be specific...
by other companies, without designing them.
IC production facilities are expensive to build and maintain. Unless they can be kept at nearly full utilization, they will become a drain on the finances of the company that owns them. The foundry model
Business model
A business model describes the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value...
uses two methods to avoid these costs: Fabless companies avoid costs by not owning such facilities. Merchant foundries, on the other hand, find work from the worldwide pool of fabless companies, and by careful scheduling
Scheduling (production processes)
Scheduling is an important tool for manufacturing and engineering, where it can have a major impact on the productivity of a process. In manufacturing, the purpose of scheduling is to minimize the production time and costs, by telling a production facility when to make, with which staff, and on...
, pricing
Pricing
Pricing is the process of determining what a company will receive in exchange for its products. Pricing factors are manufacturing cost, market place, competition, market condition, and quality of product. Pricing is also a key variable in microeconomic price allocation theory. Pricing is a...
, and contracting keep their plants at full utilization.
History
Originally, microelectronic devices were manufactured by companies that both designed and produced the devices. This was necessary because manufacturing involved tweakingTweaking
Tweaking refers to fine-tuning or adjusting a complex system, usually an electronic device. Tweaks are any small modifications intended to improve a system....
parameter
Parameter
Parameter from Ancient Greek παρά also “para” meaning “beside, subsidiary” and μέτρον also “metron” meaning “measure”, can be interpreted in mathematics, logic, linguistics, environmental science and other disciplines....
s, precise understanding of the manufacturing processes being used, and the occasional need to redesign. These manufacturers were involved in both the research and development
Research and development
The phrase research and development , according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, refers to "creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of...
of manufacturing processes and the research and development of microcircuit design.
However, as manufacturing techniques developed, microelectronic devices became more standardised allowing them to be used by more than a single manufacturer. This standardization allowed design to be split from manufacture. A design that obeyed the appropriate design rules could be manufactured by different companies that had compatible manufacturing methods. An important development that allowed this was the introduction of advances in electronic design automation
Electronic design automation
Electronic design automation is a category of software tools for designing electronic systems such as printed circuit boards and integrated circuits...
(EDA), which allowed circuit designers to exchange design data with other designers using different foundries.
Because of the separation of manufacture and design, new types of companies were founded. One type of company is called a fabless semiconductor company. These companies do not have any semiconductor manufacturing capability but rather contracted production from a manufacturer. This manufacturer is called a merchant foundry. The fabless company concentrates on the research and development of an IC-product; the foundry concentrates on fabricating and testing
Test method
A test method is a definitive procedure that produces a test result.A test can be considered as technical operation that consists of determination of one or more characteristics of a given product, process or service according to a specified procedure. Often a test is part of an experiment.The test...
the physical product. If the foundry does not have any semiconductor design capability, it is called a pure-play semiconductor foundry.
An absolute separation into fabless and foundry companies is not necessary. Some companies continue to exist which perform both operations and benefit from the close coupling of their skills. Some companies manufacture some of their own designs and contract out to have others manufactured or designed, in cases where they see value
Value (marketing)
The value of a product is the mental estimation a consumer makes of it. Formally it may be conceptualized as the relationship between the consumer's perceived benefits in relation to the perceived costs of receiving these benefits...
or seek special skills. The foundry model is a business vision that seeks to optimize productivity
Productivity
Productivity is a measure of the efficiency of production. Productivity is a ratio of what is produced to what is required to produce it. Usually this ratio is in the form of an average, expressing the total output divided by the total input...
.
MOSIS
The very first merchant foundries were part of the MOSISMOSIS
MOSIS is probably the oldest integrated circuit foundry service and one of the first Internet services other than supercomputing services and basic infrastructure such as E-mail or FTP....
service. The MOSIS service gave limited production-access to designers with limited means, such as students, researchers at a universities
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
, and engineers at small startups
Startup company
A startup company or startup is a company with a limited operating history. These companies, generally newly created, are in a phase of development and research for markets...
. The designer submitted designs and these submissions were manufactured with the commercial company's extra capacity. Manufacturers could insert some wafers
Wafer (electronics)
A wafer is a thin slice of semiconductor material, such as a silicon crystal, used in the fabrication of integrated circuits and other microdevices...
for a MOSIS design into a collection of their own wafers when a processing step was compatible with both operations. The commercial company (serving as foundry) was already running the process so effectively were being paid by MOSIS for something they were already doing. A factory with excess capacity during slow periods could also run MOSIS designs in order to avoid having expensive capital
Capital (economics)
In economics, capital, capital goods, or real capital refers to already-produced durable goods used in production of goods or services. The capital goods are not significantly consumed, though they may depreciate in the production process...
equipment standing idle.
Under-utilization of an expensive manufacturing plant could lead to the financial ruin of the owner, so selling surplus wafer capacity was a way to maximize the fab's utilization. Hence, economic factors created a climate
Climate
Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods...
where fab operators wanted to sell surplus wafer-manufacturing capacity, and designers wanted to purchase manufacturing capacity rather than try to build it.
Although MOSIS opened the doors to some fabless customers, earning additional revenue
Revenue
In business, revenue is income that a company receives from its normal business activities, usually from the sale of goods and services to customers. In many countries, such as the United Kingdom, revenue is referred to as turnover....
for the foundry and providing inexpensive service to the customer
Customer
A customer is usually used to refer to a current or potential buyer or user of the products of an individual or organization, called the supplier, seller, or vendor. This is typically through purchasing or renting goods or services...
, running a business around MOSIS production was difficult. The merchant foundries sold wafer capacity on a surplus basis, as a secondary business activity. Services to the customers were secondary to the commercial business, with little guarantee of support. The choice of merchant
Merchant
A merchant is a businessperson who trades in commodities that were produced by others, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be one of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant...
dictated the design, development flow, and available techniques to the fabless customer. Merchant foundries might require proprietary
Property
Property is any physical or intangible entity that is owned by a person or jointly by a group of people or a legal entity like a corporation...
and non-portable preparation steps. Foundries concerned with protecting what they considered trade secret
Trade secret
A trade secret is a formula, practice, process, design, instrument, pattern, or compilation of information which is not generally known or reasonably ascertainable, by which a business can obtain an economic advantage over competitors or customers...
s of their methodologies might only be willing to release data to designers after an onerous nondisclosure procedure.
Dedicated foundry
In 1987, the world's first dedicated merchant foundry opened its doors: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC)TSMC
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Limited or TSMC is the world's largest dedicated independent semiconductor foundry, with its headquarters and main operations located in the Hsinchu Science Park in Hsinchu, Taiwan.-Overview:...
. The distinction of 'dedicated' is in reference to the typical merchant foundry of the era, whose primary business activity was building and selling of its own IC-products. The dedicated foundry offers several key advantages to its customers: First, it does not sell finished IC-products into the supply
Supply (economics)
In economics, supply is the amount of some product producers are willing and able to sell at a given price all other factors being held constant. Usually, supply is plotted as a supply curve showing the relationship of price to the amount of product businesses are willing to sell.In economics the...
channel; thus a dedicated foundry will never compete directly with its fabless customers (obviating a common concern of fabless companies). Second, the dedicated foundry can scale production capacity to a customer's needs, offering low-quantity shuttle services in addition to full-scale production
Mass production
Mass production is the production of large amounts of standardized products, including and especially on assembly lines...
lines. Finally, the dedicated foundry offers a "COT-flow" (customer owned tooling) based on industry-standard EDA
Electronic design automation
Electronic design automation is a category of software tools for designing electronic systems such as printed circuit boards and integrated circuits...
systems, whereas many IDM merchants required its customers to use proprietary (non-portable) development tools. The COT advantage gave the customer complete control over the design process, from concept to final design.
Foundry sales leaders by year
- Pure-play semiconductor foundry is a company that does not offer a significant amount of IC products of its own design, but instead operates semiconductor fabrication plants focused on producing ICs for other companies.
- IDMIntegrated device manufacturerAn integrated device manufacturer is a semiconductor company which designs, manufactures, and sells integrated circuit products. As a classification, IDM is often used to differentiate between a company which handles semiconductor manufacturing in-house, and a fabless semiconductor company, which...
semiconductor foundry is where companies such as Texas Instruments, IBM, and Samsung join in to provide foundry services as long as there is no conflict of interest between relevant parties.
2010
| Rank | Company | Foundry Type | Country of origin | Revenue (million $USD United States dollar The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies.... ) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TSMC TSMC Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Limited or TSMC is the world's largest dedicated independent semiconductor foundry, with its headquarters and main operations located in the Hsinchu Science Park in Hsinchu, Taiwan.-Overview:... |
Pure-play | 13,332 | |
| 2 | UMC United Microelectronics Corporation UMC was founded as Taiwan's first semiconductor company in 1980 as a spin-off of the government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute .-Overview:... |
Pure-play | 3,824 | |
| 3 | Globalfoundries GLOBALFOUNDRIES GlobalFoundries Inc. is the world's third largest independent semiconductor foundry, with its headquarters located in Milpitas, California. GlobalFoundries was created by the divestiture of the manufacturing side of AMD on March 2, 2009, and was expanded through its merger with Chartered... |
Pure-play | 3,520 | |
| 4 | SMIC Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, is a semiconductor foundry in mainland China, providing integrated circuit manufacturing services at 350 nm to 45nm technologies... |
Pure-play | 1,554 | |
| 5 | Dongbu HiTek | Pure-play | 512 | |
| 6 | TowerJazz Tower Semiconductor Tower Semiconductor Ltd. , global specialty foundry leader and its fully owned U.S. subsidiary Jazz Semiconductor, operate collectively under the brand name TowerJazz, manufacturing integrated circuits with geometries ranging from 1.0 to 0.13-micron... |
Pure-play | 509 | |
| 7 | Vanguard Vanguard International Semiconductor Corporation Vanguard International Semiconductor Corporation is a specialized IC foundry service provider. It is founded in December 1994 in Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan, by Morris Chang... (VIS) |
Pure-play | 505 | |
| 8 | IBM IBM International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas... |
IDM | 500 | |
| 9 | MagnaChip | IDM | 410 | |
| 10 | Samsung Semiconductor Samsung Electronics Samsung Electronics is a South Korean multinational electronics and information technology company headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul... |
IDM | 390 |
2009~2007
As of 2009, the top 17 semiconductor foundries were:| Rank | Company | Foundry Type | Country of origin | Revenue (million $USD United States dollar The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies.... ) |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | |||
| 1 | TSMC TSMC Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Limited or TSMC is the world's largest dedicated independent semiconductor foundry, with its headquarters and main operations located in the Hsinchu Science Park in Hsinchu, Taiwan.-Overview:... |
Pure-play |  TaiwanTaiwan Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following... |
8,989 | 10,556 | 9,813 |
| 2 | UMC United Microelectronics Corporation UMC was founded as Taiwan's first semiconductor company in 1980 as a spin-off of the government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute .-Overview:... |
Pure-play | Taiwan Taiwan Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following... |
2,815 | 3,070 | 3,430 |
| 3 | Chartered Chartered Charter or Chartered might refer to different things:* Charter, a legal document conferring rights or privileges* Chartered , a professional credential* Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, a manufacturing company... (1) |
Pure-play |  SingaporeSingapore Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the... |
1,540 | 1,743 | 1,458 |
| 4 | GlobalFoundries GLOBALFOUNDRIES GlobalFoundries Inc. is the world's third largest independent semiconductor foundry, with its headquarters located in Milpitas, California. GlobalFoundries was created by the divestiture of the manufacturing side of AMD on March 2, 2009, and was expanded through its merger with Chartered... |
Pure-play |  USA |
1,101 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | SMIC Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, is a semiconductor foundry in mainland China, providing integrated circuit manufacturing services at 350 nm to 45nm technologies... |
Pure-play |  China |
1,075 | 1,353 | 1,550 |
| 6 | Dongbu | Pure-play | South Korea South Korea The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south... |
395 | 490 | 510 |
| 7 | Vanguard Vanguard International Semiconductor Corporation Vanguard International Semiconductor Corporation is a specialized IC foundry service provider. It is founded in December 1994 in Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan, by Morris Chang... |
Pure-play | Taiwan Taiwan Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following... |
382 | 511 | 486 |
| 8 | IBM IBM International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas... |
IDM | USA |
335 | 400 | 570 |
| 9 | Samsung Samsung The Samsung Group is a South Korean multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea... |
IDM | South Korea South Korea The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south... |
325 | 370 | 355 |
| 10 | Grace | Pure-play | China |
310 | 335 | 310 |
| 11 | He Jian | Pure-play | China |
305 | 345 | 330 |
| 12 | Tower Semiconductor Tower Semiconductor Tower Semiconductor Ltd. , global specialty foundry leader and its fully owned U.S. subsidiary Jazz Semiconductor, operate collectively under the brand name TowerJazz, manufacturing integrated circuits with geometries ranging from 1.0 to 0.13-micron... |
Pure-play |  IsraelIsrael The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea... |
292 | 252 | 231 |
| 13 | HHNEC | Pure-play | China |
290 | 350 | 335 |
| 14 | SSMC SSMC Systems on Silicon Manufacturing Co. Pte. Ltd. is presently a joint venture of NXP Semiconductors and TSMC. It was originally founded by Philips, TSMC and the Economic Development Board Investments Pte Ltd. .SSMC currently based in Singapore... |
Pure-play | Singapore Singapore Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the... |
280 | 340 | 359 |
| 15 | Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Inc. , widely known as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, United States, which develops and commercializes semiconductor and computer technology... |
IDM | USA |
250 | 315 | 450 |
| 16 | X-Fab X-Fab The X-FAB Silicon Foundries is a group of semiconductor foundries, with headquarters in Erfurt... |
Pure-play |  Germany |
223 | 368 | 410 |
| 17 | MagnaChip | IDM | South Korea South Korea The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south... |
220 | 290 | 322 |
(1) Now acquired by GlobalFoundries
2008~2006
As of 2008, the top 18 pure-play semiconductor foundries were:| Rank | Company | Country of origin | Revenue (million $USD United States dollar The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies.... ) |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | ||
| 1 | TSMC TSMC Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Limited or TSMC is the world's largest dedicated independent semiconductor foundry, with its headquarters and main operations located in the Hsinchu Science Park in Hsinchu, Taiwan.-Overview:... |
Taiwan Taiwan Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following... |
10,556 | 9,813 | 9,748 |
| 2 | UMC United Microelectronics Corporation UMC was founded as Taiwan's first semiconductor company in 1980 as a spin-off of the government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute .-Overview:... |
Taiwan Taiwan Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following... |
3,400 | 3,755 | 3,670 |
| 3 | Chartered Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Prior to 2010, Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing was the world's third largest dedicated independent semiconductor foundry, with its headquarters and main operations located in the Woodlands Industrial Park, Kranji Singapore... |
Singapore Singapore Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the... |
1,743 | 1,458 | 1,527 |
| 4 | SMIC Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, is a semiconductor foundry in mainland China, providing integrated circuit manufacturing services at 350 nm to 45nm technologies... |
China |
1,354 | 1,550 | 1,465 |
| 5 | Vanguard Vanguard International Semiconductor Corporation Vanguard International Semiconductor Corporation is a specialized IC foundry service provider. It is founded in December 1994 in Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan, by Morris Chang... |
Taiwan Taiwan Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following... |
511 | 486 | 398 |
| 6 | Dongbu |  South KoreaSouth Korea The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south... |
490 | 510 | 456 |
| 7 | X-Fab X-Fab The X-FAB Silicon Foundries is a group of semiconductor foundries, with headquarters in Erfurt... |
Germany |
400 | 410 | 290 |
| 8 | HHNEC | China |
350 | 335 | 315 |
| 9 | He Jian | China |
345 | 330 | 290 |
| 10 | SSMC SSMC Systems on Silicon Manufacturing Co. Pte. Ltd. is presently a joint venture of NXP Semiconductors and TSMC. It was originally founded by Philips, TSMC and the Economic Development Board Investments Pte Ltd. .SSMC currently based in Singapore... |
Singapore Singapore Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the... |
340 | 350 | 325 |
| 11 | Grace | China |
335 | 310 | 227 |
| 12 | Tower Semiconductor Tower Semiconductor Tower Semiconductor Ltd. , global specialty foundry leader and its fully owned U.S. subsidiary Jazz Semiconductor, operate collectively under the brand name TowerJazz, manufacturing integrated circuits with geometries ranging from 1.0 to 0.13-micron... |
Israel Israel The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea... |
252 | 231 | 187 |
| 13 | Jazz Semiconductor Jazz Semiconductor Jazz Semiconductor is a US based pure-play semiconductor wafer foundry that serves customers targeting wireless, optical networking, power management, storage, aerospace/defense and other high-performance applications... |
United States |
190 | 182 | 213 |
| 14 | Silterra |  Malaysia |
175 | 180 | 155 |
| 15 | ASMC | China |
149 | 155 | 170 |
| 16 | Polar Semiconductor |  Japan |
110 | 105 | 95 |
| 17 | Mosel-Vitelic | Taiwan Taiwan Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following... |
100 | 105 | 155 |
| 18 | CR Micro (1) | China |
|||
| 143 | 114 | ||||
| Others | 140 | 167 | 180 | ||
| Total | 20,980 | 20,575 | 19,940 | ||
(1) Merged with CR Logic in 2008, reclassified as an IDM foundry
2007~2005
As of 2007, the top 14 semiconductor foundries include:| Rank | Company | Foundry type | Country of origin | Revenue (million $USD United States dollar The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies.... ) |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | |||
| 1 | TSMC TSMC Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Limited or TSMC is the world's largest dedicated independent semiconductor foundry, with its headquarters and main operations located in the Hsinchu Science Park in Hsinchu, Taiwan.-Overview:... |
Pure-Play | Taiwan Taiwan Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following... |
9,813 | 9,748 | 8,217 |
| 2 | UMC United Microelectronics Corporation UMC was founded as Taiwan's first semiconductor company in 1980 as a spin-off of the government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute .-Overview:... |
Pure-Play | Taiwan Taiwan Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following... |
3,755 | 3,670 | 3,259 |
| 3 | SMIC Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, is a semiconductor foundry in mainland China, providing integrated circuit manufacturing services at 350 nm to 45nm technologies... |
Pure-Play | China |
1,550 | 1,465 | 1,171 |
| 4 | Chartered Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Prior to 2010, Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing was the world's third largest dedicated independent semiconductor foundry, with its headquarters and main operations located in the Woodlands Industrial Park, Kranji Singapore... |
Pure-Play | Singapore Singapore Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the... |
1,458 | 1,527 | 1,132 |
| 5 | Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Inc. , widely known as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, United States, which develops and commercializes semiconductor and computer technology... |
IDM Integrated device manufacturer An integrated device manufacturer is a semiconductor company which designs, manufactures, and sells integrated circuit products. As a classification, IDM is often used to differentiate between a company which handles semiconductor manufacturing in-house, and a fabless semiconductor company, which... |
United States |
610 | 585 | 540 |
| 6 | IBM IBM International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas... |
IDM | United States |
570 | 600 | 665 |
| 7 | Dongbu | Pure-Play | South Korea South Korea The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south... |
510 | 456 | 347 |
| 8 | Vanguard Vanguard International Semiconductor Corporation Vanguard International Semiconductor Corporation is a specialized IC foundry service provider. It is founded in December 1994 in Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan, by Morris Chang... |
Pure-Play | Taiwan Taiwan Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following... |
486 | 398 | 353 |
| 9 | X-Fab X-Fab The X-FAB Silicon Foundries is a group of semiconductor foundries, with headquarters in Erfurt... |
Pure-Play | Germany |
410 | 290 | 202 |
| 10 | Samsung Samsung The Samsung Group is a South Korean multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea... |
IDM | South Korea South Korea The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south... |
385 | 75 | |
| 11 | SSMC SSMC Systems on Silicon Manufacturing Co. Pte. Ltd. is presently a joint venture of NXP Semiconductors and TSMC. It was originally founded by Philips, TSMC and the Economic Development Board Investments Pte Ltd. .SSMC currently based in Singapore... |
Pure-Play | Singapore Singapore Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the... |
350 | 325 | 280 |
| 12 | HHNEC | Pure-Play | China |
335 | 315 | 313 |
| 13 | He Jian | Pure-Play | China |
330 | 290 | 250 |
| 14 | MagnaChip | IDM | South Korea South Korea The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south... |
322 | 342 | 345 |
For ranking in worldwide Semiconductor sales leaders by year:
| Rank | Company | Country of origin | Revenue (million $USD) | 2006/2005 changes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | 2005 | 2006 | 2005 | ||
| 6 | 7 | TSMC TSMC Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Limited or TSMC is the world's largest dedicated independent semiconductor foundry, with its headquarters and main operations located in the Hsinchu Science Park in Hsinchu, Taiwan.-Overview:... |
Taiwan Taiwan Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following... |
9,748 | 8,217 |
| 21 | 22 | UMC United Microelectronics Corporation UMC was founded as Taiwan's first semiconductor company in 1980 as a spin-off of the government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute .-Overview:... |
Taiwan Taiwan Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following... |
3,670 | 3,259 |
2004
As of 2004, the top 10 pure-play semiconductor foundries were:| Rank 2004 | Company | Country of origin |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | TSMC TSMC Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Limited or TSMC is the world's largest dedicated independent semiconductor foundry, with its headquarters and main operations located in the Hsinchu Science Park in Hsinchu, Taiwan.-Overview:... |
Taiwan Taiwan Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following... |
| 2 | UMC United Microelectronics Corporation UMC was founded as Taiwan's first semiconductor company in 1980 as a spin-off of the government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute .-Overview:... |
Taiwan Taiwan Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following... |
| 3 | Chartered Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Prior to 2010, Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing was the world's third largest dedicated independent semiconductor foundry, with its headquarters and main operations located in the Woodlands Industrial Park, Kranji Singapore... |
Singapore Singapore Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the... |
| 4 | SMIC Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, is a semiconductor foundry in mainland China, providing integrated circuit manufacturing services at 350 nm to 45nm technologies... |
China |
| 5 | Dongbu/Anam | South Korea South Korea The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south... |
| 6 | SSMC SSMC Systems on Silicon Manufacturing Co. Pte. Ltd. is presently a joint venture of NXP Semiconductors and TSMC. It was originally founded by Philips, TSMC and the Economic Development Board Investments Pte Ltd. .SSMC currently based in Singapore... |
Singapore Singapore Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the... |
| 7 | HHNEC | China |
| 8 | Jazz Semiconductor Jazz Semiconductor Jazz Semiconductor is a US based pure-play semiconductor wafer foundry that serves customers targeting wireless, optical networking, power management, storage, aerospace/defense and other high-performance applications... |
United States |
| 9 | Silterra | Malaysia |
| 10 | X-Fab X-Fab The X-FAB Silicon Foundries is a group of semiconductor foundries, with headquarters in Erfurt... |
Germany |
Financial and IP issues
Like all industries, the semiconductor industry faces upcoming challenges and obstacles.The cost to stay on the leading edge has steadily increased with each generation of chips. The financial strain is being felt by both large merchant foundries and their fabless customers. The cost of a new foundry exceeds $1 billion. These costs must be passed on to customers. Many merchant foundries have entered into joint ventures with their competitors in an effort to split research and design expenditures and fab-maintenance expenses.
Chip design companies sometimes avoid other companies' patents simply by purchasing the products from a licensed foundry with broad cross-license agreements with the patent owner.
Stolen design data is also a concern; data is rarely directly copied, because blatant copies are easily identified by distinctive features in the chip,
placed there either for this purpose or as a byproduct of the design process. However, the data including any procedure, process system, method of operation or concept may be sold to a competitor, who may save months or years of tedious reverse engineering
Reverse engineering
Reverse engineering is the process of discovering the technological principles of a device, object, or system through analysis of its structure, function, and operation...
.
See also
- Integrated device manufacturerIntegrated device manufacturerAn integrated device manufacturer is a semiconductor company which designs, manufactures, and sells integrated circuit products. As a classification, IDM is often used to differentiate between a company which handles semiconductor manufacturing in-house, and a fabless semiconductor company, which...
- Semiconductor fabricationSemiconductor fabricationSemiconductor device fabrication is the process used to create the integrated circuits that are present in everyday electrical and electronic devices. It is a multiple-step sequence of photolithographic and chemical processing steps during which electronic circuits are gradually created on a wafer...
- Original design manufacturerOriginal Design ManufacturerAn original design manufacturer is a company which designs and manufactures a product which is specified and eventually branded by another firm for sale. Such companies allow the brand firm to produce without having to engage in the organization or running of a factory...
- Original equipment manufacturerOriginal Equipment ManufacturerAn original equipment manufacturer, or OEM, manufactures products or components that are purchased by a company and retailed under that purchasing company's brand name. OEM refers to the company that originally manufactured the product. When referring to automotive parts, OEM designates a...
- Semiconductor sales leaders by year
- Semiconductor fabless sales leaders by year
- Semiconductor equipment sales leaders by yearSemiconductor equipment sales leaders by yearThis article lists the top 15 largest equipment semiconductor companies by sales leaders since 2006.An IC equipment supplier's revenue is classified as sales of systems used to manufacture semiconductors, thin-film heads, MEMs, integrated circuits, as well as service, support, and retrofitted systems...
External links
