EL SEGUNDO, USA: As if the massive downturn in global revenue weren’t enough, the global semiconductor pure-play foundry industry also is undergoing a period of wrenching changes, according to iSuppli Corp.
For 2009, the global pure-play foundry business is expected to underperform the total semiconductor industry. The current forecast is for the pure-play foundry industry to experience a 25.2 percent contraction in global revenue in 2009, while the total semiconductor industry will experience a 23 percent decline.
“Overall, 2009 will go down in the history books as one of the most difficult years ever experienced by the global semiconductor and foundry industries,” said Len Jelinek, director and chief analyst for semiconductor manufacturing at iSuppli.
“Unlike previous industry downturns, where supply and demand have driven upturns and downturns, the debacle in 2009 can be mainly attributed to external economic influences on the semiconductor industry that will take years from which to recover.”
Foundry reshuffle
Beyond the weak economic industry and economic conditions, the pure-play foundry industry is going through a fundamental reconfiguration that is affecting every aspect of the business.
This reshuffle has its origins in the trend of semiconductor manufacturing specialization and aggregation of demand. With the high cost of transitioning to more advanced semiconductor production technologies, more semiconductor suppliers have chosen to support technology development platforms through the use of third-party foundry manufacturing to develop differentiation through unique chip designs.
Chip suppliers also are reducing their product portfolios in order to become more responsive to changing market conditions. The economics of a company maintaining multiple manufacturing facilities to produce a broad base of products are clearly not practical when competing with highly focused manufacturers.
Gaining maturity
This change in business realities is forcing semiconductor manufacturers to retire older facilities at a faster rate.
“Historically, when semiconductor suppliers transitioned to new technologies, they maintained their mature factories for cost-effective manufacturing of older technology,” Jelinek said. “Today, as competitors transition mature technology to newer manufacturing platforms, cost pressures are making older manufacturing facilities uncompetitive to operate.”
In North America, the lifecycle for mature manufacturing facilities has reached its twilight. In Europe and Japan, companies are struggling with the social economic impact of shuttering facilities that are no longer competitive. All of this is being accelerated by favorable economic policies toward manufacturing in Asian countries.
As these policies continue to gain favor, companies will continue to transition manufacturing to these more cost-effective locations.
With capacity increases and outsourcing of semiconductor manufacturing concentrated on a smaller group of companies in low-cost production regions, the foundry industry is unlikely to mount a major recovery anytime soon.
Showing posts with label foundry services. Show all posts
Showing posts with label foundry services. Show all posts
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
RFMD announces GaN foundry services
BOSTON, USA: RF Micro Devices Inc., a global leader in the design and manufacture of high-performance semiconductor components, announced the company has formed a gallium nitride (GaN) Foundry Services business unit to supply high-reliability, high-performance and price-competitive GaN semiconductor technology into multiple RF power markets.
The RFMD GaN Foundry Services business unit will leverage the company's industry leadership in gallium arsenide (GaAs) manufacturing capacity and cycle times, as well as a range of new customer services, to drive shorter time-to-market and minimize time between initial wafer order and final delivery.
RFMD is the industry's leading manufacturer of GaAs compound semiconductors. RFMD's GaN manufacturing is interchangeable with its GaAs manufacturing and directly benefits from the scale and demonstrated expertise of RFMD's industry-leading wafer fabrication capability.
Bob Van Buskirk, president of RFMD's Multi-Market Products Group, said: "RFMD's Foundry Services business unit is providing GaN foundry customers access to RFMD's industry-leading compound semiconductor technology and production facility and the many benefits of RFMD's scale manufacturing, including reliability, uniformity, cycle time and quality. RFMD GaN is a breakthrough technology that can change the RF power component industry as a result of its superior linearity, bandwidth and RF power density. Additionally, RFMD GaN is a "green" technology enabling higher efficiencies than previously possible, thereby requiring less power consumption to achieve similar performance or superior performance at similar power consumption levels."
RFMD's offering of GaN foundry services is distinctive in the industry because RFMD operates the industry's largest GaAs fabrication facility (fab) and has supplied its customers billions of high-reliability, high-quality compound semiconductor based RF components.
By utilizing its existing, high-volume manufacturing assets, RFMD is able to deliver foundry customers GaN technology with predictable, industry-leading reliability and increased uniformity. RFMD offers industry-leading cycle times and estimates its GaN cycle times through its wafer fab are typically 30-40% faster than its competition.
Also, by leveraging RFMD's deep knowledge of semiconductor process models to accurately predict product performance, RFMD's Foundry Services business unit can lower customer development costs by reducing the number of prototype runs necessary to meet customer specifications.
Customer applications expected to benefit from RFMD GaN include commercial and defense power applications including wireless infrastructure, CATV line amplifiers, broadband communication, power amplifiers and various defense radar systems.
Additionally, RFMD's Foundry Services customers gain access to a seasoned Foundry Services support team with first-hand knowledge of foundry customers' expectations and requirements. RFMD's Foundry Services support team combines more than 50 years of foundry services experience, both as foundry customers and foundry suppliers.
Additionally, RFMD's Foundry Services support team has implemented a full set of services intended to minimize the total time from order entry to customer delivery. Services include simulation models that enable a high probability of initial success and business processes that enable little or no queue time.
RFMD GaN is a next-generation compound semiconductor technology that delivers much higher power density and breakdown voltage than competing technologies and is ideally suited for very high performance power devices.
Typical operating characteristics of RFMD GaN include operating voltages of 48 (or 65) volts, power density of 6 to 8 watts/mm, FTs of 11 GHz and F max of 18 GHz and MTTF greater than 100M hours at 150 degrees C channel operating temperature.
The RFMD GaN Foundry Services business unit will leverage the company's industry leadership in gallium arsenide (GaAs) manufacturing capacity and cycle times, as well as a range of new customer services, to drive shorter time-to-market and minimize time between initial wafer order and final delivery.
RFMD is the industry's leading manufacturer of GaAs compound semiconductors. RFMD's GaN manufacturing is interchangeable with its GaAs manufacturing and directly benefits from the scale and demonstrated expertise of RFMD's industry-leading wafer fabrication capability.
Bob Van Buskirk, president of RFMD's Multi-Market Products Group, said: "RFMD's Foundry Services business unit is providing GaN foundry customers access to RFMD's industry-leading compound semiconductor technology and production facility and the many benefits of RFMD's scale manufacturing, including reliability, uniformity, cycle time and quality. RFMD GaN is a breakthrough technology that can change the RF power component industry as a result of its superior linearity, bandwidth and RF power density. Additionally, RFMD GaN is a "green" technology enabling higher efficiencies than previously possible, thereby requiring less power consumption to achieve similar performance or superior performance at similar power consumption levels."
RFMD's offering of GaN foundry services is distinctive in the industry because RFMD operates the industry's largest GaAs fabrication facility (fab) and has supplied its customers billions of high-reliability, high-quality compound semiconductor based RF components.
By utilizing its existing, high-volume manufacturing assets, RFMD is able to deliver foundry customers GaN technology with predictable, industry-leading reliability and increased uniformity. RFMD offers industry-leading cycle times and estimates its GaN cycle times through its wafer fab are typically 30-40% faster than its competition.
Also, by leveraging RFMD's deep knowledge of semiconductor process models to accurately predict product performance, RFMD's Foundry Services business unit can lower customer development costs by reducing the number of prototype runs necessary to meet customer specifications.
Customer applications expected to benefit from RFMD GaN include commercial and defense power applications including wireless infrastructure, CATV line amplifiers, broadband communication, power amplifiers and various defense radar systems.
Additionally, RFMD's Foundry Services customers gain access to a seasoned Foundry Services support team with first-hand knowledge of foundry customers' expectations and requirements. RFMD's Foundry Services support team combines more than 50 years of foundry services experience, both as foundry customers and foundry suppliers.
Additionally, RFMD's Foundry Services support team has implemented a full set of services intended to minimize the total time from order entry to customer delivery. Services include simulation models that enable a high probability of initial success and business processes that enable little or no queue time.
RFMD GaN is a next-generation compound semiconductor technology that delivers much higher power density and breakdown voltage than competing technologies and is ideally suited for very high performance power devices.
Typical operating characteristics of RFMD GaN include operating voltages of 48 (or 65) volts, power density of 6 to 8 watts/mm, FTs of 11 GHz and F max of 18 GHz and MTTF greater than 100M hours at 150 degrees C channel operating temperature.
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