Operation Mode of Integrated Circuit Design
Summary
As we all know, one of the important operating modes in integrated circuit design, Fabless , is a combination of Fabrication (manufacturing) and less (no, no), which refers to the design of integrated circuits that "have no manufacturing business and only focus on design" A mode of operation, also used to refer to IC design companies that do not own a chip manufacturing plant, often referred to as "fabless factory" (wafer is the basis of chip\silicon integrated circuit, no wafer means no chip manufacturing ); Generally speaking, the IC design house (IC design company) is Fabless.
The operating model of the semiconductor chip industry
The semiconductor chip industry has three modes of operation, namely IDM, Fabless and Foundry modes.
The main features of the Fabless (fabless chip supplier) model are as follows: only responsible for the circuit design and sales of the chip; outsourcing production, testing, packaging and other links.
The main advantages are as follows: relatively light assets, small initial investment scale, relatively small difficulty in starting a business, relatively low operating expenses, and relatively flexible transformation.
The main disadvantages are as follows: Compared with IDM, it cannot be coordinated and optimized with the process, so it is difficult to complete the design with strict indicators; compared with Foundry, it needs to bear various market risks, and once a mistake is made, it may be impossible.
Such companies mainly include: HiSilicon, MediaTek (MTK), Broadcom (Broadcom).
IDM(Integrated Device Manufacture)模式
The main features are as follows: integrating chip design, chip manufacturing, chip packaging and testing, and other industrial chain links; the model adopted by most integrated circuit companies in the early days; currently only a few companies can maintain it.
The main advantages are as follows: Collaborative optimization of design, manufacturing and other links helps to fully explore the technological potential; able to take the lead in experimenting and implementing new semiconductor technologies (such as FinFet).
The main disadvantages are as follows: the company is large in scale, high management costs; operating expenses are high, and the return on capital is low.
Such companies mainly include: Samsung, Texas Instruments (TI)
Foundry (foundry) model
The main features are as follows: only responsible for one of the links of manufacturing, packaging or testing; not responsible for chip design; it can provide services to multiple design companies at the same time, but it is subject to the competition between the companies.
The main advantages are as follows: Do not bear the risk of decision-making due to inaccurate market research and product design defects.
The main disadvantages are as follows: the scale of investment is large, and the cost of maintaining the normal operation of the production line is high; continuous investment is required to maintain the level of technology, and it is more difficult to catch up once backward.
Such enterprises mainly include: SMIC, UMC, Global Foundry.
An important link in the semiconductor chip industry chain
Simply speaking, the industrial chain is divided into three parts: upper, middle and downstream:
1. IC design refers to integrated circuit design.
2. Wafer manufacturing, because the integrated circuit needs to be built on a wafer, the wafer is something that is extracted layer by layer from the sand, and there are crystal pulling and cutting processes in the middle, which need a melting furnace, CVD equipment, and a single crystal furnace And slicer.
3. Wafer processing is based on the wafer prepared in the previous step, and the integrated circuit is mainly composed of coating, photolithography, etching, and ion implantation. This also requires multiple devices to achieve.
4. Packaging and testing is packaging + testing. The purpose is to put the integrated circuit made above into the protective case to prevent damage and corrosion. To use cutting and thinning equipment, lead wire machine, bonding machine, sorting and testing machine and other equipment.
Finally, the chip is finished.
Wafer manufacturing and processing is the core process of chip manufacturing, which is much more difficult than the subsequent packaging and testing links. The equipment investment here is very large, which can account for more than 70% of the total equipment investment. The equipment investment for packaging and testing is about 15% and 10% of the total equipment investment respectively.
