Operation Mode of Semiconductor Chip Industry
1. IDM (Integrated Device Manufacture) Model
The main features are as follows: it integrates chip design, chip manufacturing, chip packaging and testing into one industry chain; the mode adopted by most IC enterprises in the early period; at present, only a few enterprises can maintain it.
The main advantages are as follows: collaborative optimization of design, manufacturing and other links can help to fully tap the potential of technology, and be able to take the lead in experimenting and implementing new semiconductor technologies (such as FinFet).
The main disadvantages are as follows: the company has a large scale, high management costs, high operating costs and low return on capital.
This kind of enterprise mainly has: Samsung, Texas Instrument (TI).
2. Fabless (no factory chip supplier) model
The main features are as follows: only responsible for the circuit design and sales of chips; outsourcing the production, testing, packaging and other links.
The main advantages are as follows: light assets, small initial investment scale, relatively small entrepreneurship difficulty; low operating costs, relatively flexible transformation.
The main weaknesses are as follows: compared with IDM, it is difficult to coordinate optimization with process, so it is difficult to complete the rigorous design of indicators; compared with Foundry, it needs to bear all kinds of market risks, and once mistakes are made, they may be irreversible.
The main types of enterprises are: Heise, MTK and Broadcom.
