How will technology evolution impact semiconductor industry and its supply chain?

FRANCE: According to Yole Développement, “In the semiconductor industry, there are different ways of managing the technology evolution and doing business”. Indeed, key players like Intel are at the forefront of technological developments and adapt their capabilities by introducing new production lines. Such companies have vast financial resources for in-house development.

However, for most of today’s semiconductor companies, this is not the case. Instead, they’re limited by industrialization costs and have thus decided to subcontract this step to foundries. But regardless of which path a company takes, the semiconductor supply chain is moving swiftly and the fabless business model is becoming increasingly popular.

The fabless model has existed in the semiconductor sector for many years and has proven to be very successful. Today, the top 12 fabless semiconductor companies own 80 percent of the market. Due to their long-running, ever-growing success, we’ve seen the emergence of fabless companies in other sectors such as MEMS, Sensors, and Power Electronics. In fact, "Going fabless" has become a strategic choice.

So what are the options, and how are they best evaluated? When and how should they be re-evaluated?

Yole Développement and Serma Technologies have combined their industry knowledge to create a unique European event where companies can exchange information about supply chain evolution and discuss critical topics such as the impact of current and future technologies on the supply chain, the status of fabless companies, and the added-value of the fabless business model. The event is called Successful Semiconductor Fabless 2013 (SSF 2013), and it takes place in Paris from April 10-12, 2013.