MCM008:  Foundries

Foundries Look to Expanding Role Even Further - Semiconductor International Welcome, Guest. ( Register (Related) / Log in (Related) here for extra features.) Search Entire site Articles Events News Products Buyers Guide Subject:Add/Edit a Company Listing (Related) You are here > Home (Related)
> Article

News (Related) | Archives (Related) | Buyers Guide (Related) | Events (Related) | Newsletters (Related) | Webcasts (Related)

Info ChannelsEmerging Tech  (Related) Wafer Processing  (Related) Lithography  (Related) Yield Management  (Related) Inspection, Measurement & Test  (Related) Clean Processing  (Related) Materials Science  (Related) Semiconductor Packaging  (Related) Business/Financial Info  (Related) Market Research  (Related)

Current Issue

Registration
Sign up today for special features, including free e-letters, access to archives, and much more.

Register  (Related)

Tools and ServicesArchives  (Related) Buyers Guide SemiSource  (Related) In-Stat Research Store  (Related) Learning Center  (Related) Newsletters  (Related) Reference  (Related) RSS Feeds  (Related)    Special Reports  (Related) Talk Back  (Related)  Inside SIAbout us  (Related) Advertising  (Related) Awards  (Related) Contact Us  (Related) Editorial Calendar  (Related) Submit an Article  (Related) Submit a Press Release  (Related) Free Subscriptions  (Related)

Reed Electronics

  Group WebsitesEDN  (Related) Electronic Business  (Related) Electronic News  (Related) In-Stat  (Related) Semiconductor  (Related)

International  (Related) Test & Measurement  (Related)

World  (Related) Reed Electronics Group  (Related)

Powered By

Free Print Subscription (Related)

Printer-friendly version (Related)

Email to a Friend (Related)

Digg This (Related) | Slashdot This (Related) | add to Del.icio.us (Related)

Free Print Subscription (Related)

Printer-friendly version (Related)

Email to a Friend (Related)

Talk Back There are no comments posted for this article.

Post a comment (Related)

Foundries Look to Expanding Role Even Further

Aaron Hand, Executive Editor, Electronic Media -- , 6/5/2007

Will semiconductor foundries be moving into design in the future? No, says Mark Liu, senior vice president of operations at leading foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC, Hsinchu, Taiwan). Given the increasing role that dedicated IC foundries have taken on since their inception in 1987, it was a fair question that was asked of Liu after his plenary talk yesterday at the 2007 IEEE International Interconnect Technology Conference (Related) (IITC) in Burlingame, Calif.

It seems that there’s little else foundries like TSMC aren’t involved in these days. During his talk, titled, “Enabling Industry Growth Through Technology Partnership,” Liu noted the rapid changes that foundries are going through, with new growth and business models to be considered. An ISSCC panel a few years ago asked the question, “Is the Foundry Real or a Fluke?”. In fact, foundries have seen a much higher overall growth than the rest of industry, according to Liu, who noted that ~30% of today’s semiconductor revenue comes from foundry-produced wafers, and that’s expected to reach ~40% by 2010. “The foundry market segment is now an integral and symbiotic part of the overall semiconductor supply chain,” he said.

Foundries traditionally provided technologies to customers that had been transferred from IDMs. Those were by nature relatively mature technologies, Liu noted. “Today, the foundries are increasingly responsible for leading-edge technologies,” he added, noting TSMC’s leadership in low-k advances.

Liu spoke extensively about the need for a new growth model for foundries. “For both mature and advanced technologies, customization is important,” he said. “We believe a new integrated approach is required, whereby the customer and foundry are linked at all stages of development.” He added that collaboration remains necessary even after product tape-out.

Driving forces behind this new growth model include rising R&D costs, which have made it prohibitive for many companies to continue to invest; plus fab costs that are rising at an even faster pace. Liu quoted fab costs of $4B for 45 nm, and $5.5B for 32 nm. These factors are leading to an increasing IDM reliance on foundry R&D for CMOS logic. Foundries are beginning to participate more in research with university consortia, and collaboration with equipment and materials suppliers is vital for containing costs, Liu said.

In an attempt to manage increasing design complexity, foundries have also been collaborating more with EDA tool vendors, trying to provide user-friendly design environments, silicon-validated IP, effective reference flows, models for accurate design, and integrated design for manufacturing (DFM) to ensure manufacturability.

About 70% of CMOS logic comes from foundry wafers, Liu said, but foundries have not yet penetrated other market to any extent. It’s time for foundries to look outside the traditional area of CMOS logic, he said, and build their business in other device types as well, including mixed-signal/RF devices, MEMS, image sensors, embedded DRAM, and more.

Digg This (Related) | Slashdot This (Related) | add to Del.icio.us (Related)

Free Print Subscription (Related)

Printer-friendly version (Related)

Email to a Friend (Related)

Talk Back (Related)

Tell us what you think

Post a Comment (Related)

There are no comments posted for this article.