Semiconductor And Beyond Newsletter - #187

Author

Chetan Arvind Patil
December 31, 2023

The semiconductor industry is driven not just by innovation but also by the economics of production. At the core of this economic landscape is yield – a term that might seem technical at first glance but also drives the financial realities of semiconductor manufacturing.

Understanding the economic aspects of semiconductor yield offers insights into how this industry balances the scales of cost, quality, and supply. Below are a few critical points to showcase how yield impacts semiconductor product development and the mass production phase.

THREAD

In the semiconductor industry, it is crucial for anyone to learn about the major types of business models. In this content, I wrote a thread summarizing largest companies by their business model. The data source is The Bureau Of Industry And Security (BIS) At The U.S. Department Of Commerce. Read and lear about it here.

Similar to business models, where different types of semiconductor companies stand in the market is also an important data points. It allows the market to gauge the future trajectory of these companies and also allows helps current and future employees. Take a look at this data I have summarized for largest companies by revenue.

There are specific segments in the semiconductor industry, around which different types of products are development. Namely, analog, digital, processors, sensors and so on. Take a look at this market data focusing on where the U.S. and the world market share stands.

The total market for fabless companies is $248B, with the United States commanding a dominant 72% share. Similarly, on the foundry side, Taiwan is leading with 65% of worldwide $139B foundry market. Check this thread to learn more about where different business type stands.

Students need to know how semiconductor education and jobs are connected and for this it is important to focus on which level and type of educational program can increase the chances of employment in the semiconductor industry. Learn more about it here.

VLOG

In the context of semiconductor manufacturing, "yield" is a crucial term. It refers to the proportion of functional and correctly manufactured devices in a batch of semiconductor wafers. Yield is a critical measure of efficiency and quality in semiconductor production.

In this regard, I created a video to share some of my thoughts and overview on yield. Watch the video here.

GOVERNMENT

Chinese province sets up $1.5 billion chip fund to boost local semiconductor industry. Guangdong province in China has set up a new ¥11 billion ($1.5 billion) fund to boost its semiconductor industry, continuing China's regional chip fund trend. Shanghai started its chip fund back in 2016, and now has ¥28.5 billion ($4.02 billion) in it.

Israeli Government gives Intel $3.2B in incentives to build a chip plant. The company is looking to expand its operations on its site in Kiryat Gat, where it already has a chip factory. The move is an important part of Intel’s efforts to create a more resilient global supply chain and is in addition to ongoing and planned manufacturing investments in the U.S. and Europe, the company said.

China's chipmaking tool purchases increase 1,050% in November. The Netherlands recently saw a huge jump in wafer fab equipment sales to China -- including a 1,050% increase in value this November. The main supplier of these lithography systems to China is ASML, and most of those wafer fab tools do not need an export license from the U.S. or Dutch government. This import surge is happening even as the U.S. tries to limit China's access to cutting-edge chip-making tech. Despite these efforts, it seems Chinese firms are still getting their hands on advanced equipment.

INDUSTRY

Toshiba plans to spend $180M to more than double power chip production, aiming to catch up with power chip giants such as Infineon Technologies AG. Toshiba sees power management chips as an immediate profit driver on the back of surging electric vehicle (EV) demand.

SMIC is working on 3nm process technology despite US sanctions that limit access to advanced. Having developed its 2nd-gen 7nm-class process technology, which is good enough for smartphone processors, the report claims that SMIC has now dedicated a research and development team to working on 5nm- and 3nm-class process technologies, citing two sources with knowledge of the matter. The team is led by co-CEO Liang Mong-Song, who used to work at TSMC and Samsung and is considered one of the best semiconductor scientists and executives in the industry.

ACADEMIA

Osaka Metropolitan University researchers are proving that diamonds are so much more than just a girl's best friend. Their groundbreaking research focuses on gallium nitride (GaN) transistors, which are high-power, high-frequency semiconductor devices used in mobile data and satellite communication systems.

RESEARCH

CEA-Leti breakthrough will revolutionize GaN technology for advanced applications. CEA-Leti has developed a 200mm gallium nitride/silicon (GaN/Si) process technology compatible with CMOS cleanrooms that preserves the high performance of the semiconductor material and costs less than existing GaN/SiC technology.

TOOLS

PandA Bambu HLS Framework:

-- The primary objective of the PandA project is to develop a usable framework that will enable the research of new ideas in the HW-SW Co-Design field.

-- The PandA framework includes methodologies supporting the research on high-level synthesis of hardware accelerators, on parallelism extraction for embedded systems, on hardware/software partitioning and mapping, on metrics for performance estimation of embedded software applications and on dynamic reconfigurable devices.

-- PandA is free software, free in the sense that it respects the user’s freedom, released under the GNU General Public License version 3 and being developed at Politecnico di Milano (Italy).

JOBS

SemiWiki has a job board that can help students and semiconductor professionals quickly find different types of job openings.

CONNECT

Whether you are a student with the goal to enter semiconductor industry (or even academia) or a semiconductor professional or someone looking to learn more about the ins and outs of the semiconductor industry, please do reach out to me.

Let us together explore the world of semiconductor and the endless opportunities:

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