Category Archives: Wafer and Foundries

Semiconductor Foundry

Figure 1: GlobalFoundries Fab1 in Dresden Germany
 
What is a Semiconductor Foundry?
In simple terms, a semiconductor foundry (also known as a fab) is a factory where silicon wafers are manufactured. The main customers of a semiconductor foundry are chip makers such as: Broadcom, Qualcomm, Intel, AMD and

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Semiconductor Manufacturing Overview

When we say semiconductors, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Most of the time we think about computer chips and transistors, but it’s not as simple as it seems. For us to be able to get a basic understanding of the process of manufacturing semiconductors, we need

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Fabless Suppliers Held a Record 33% of the 2020 IC Market

market research

IC Insights’ April Update to the 2021 McClean Report describes how the sales growth rates of fabless IC companies versus IDM (integrated device manufacturers) IC suppliers have historically been very different (Figure 1). Typically, the sales growth rate registered by the fabless IC suppliers is better than that displayed by the IDMs.  In

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First Google-Sponsored MPW Shuttle Launched at SkyWater with 40 Open Source Community Submitted Designs

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. and SAN JOSE, Calif. – April 6, 2021 – SkyWater Technology, the trusted technology realization partner, and Efabless, a crowdsourcing design platform for custom silicon, today announced the first tapeout in a series of Google-sponsored open source multi-project wafer (MPW) shuttles, managed by Efabless and manufactured at SkyWater. In this partnership, open

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Samsung and TSMC Seeking to Spend Their Way to Worldwide Domination of Advanced IC Technology

IC Insights recently released its March Update to the 2021 edition of The McClean Report.  In addition to presenting its 2021 IC market forecast revisions by product type and rankings of the top 40 IDM and top 50 fabless IC suppliers in 2020, the Update contains semiconductor industry capital spending forecasts by company for 2021

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Semiconductor Foundry Roadmap & Revenue Per Wafer

The success and proliferation of integrated circuits has largely hinged on the ability of IC manufacturers to continue offering more performance and functionality for the money.  Driving down the cost of ICs (on a per-function or per-performance basis) is inescapably tied to a growing arsenal of technologies and wafer-fab manufacturing

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