Overview of Semiconductor Foundries in the Electronic Industry

As the name implies, a semiconductor foundry is a factory that makes semiconductors. The facilities usually produce microchips that are used in computers and electronic devices. The term foundry is used because the foundries are an essential link in the chain that creates our electronic world. To put it in perspective, a typical device uses about 35 semiconductor chips. The semiconductor industry is responsible for nearly 30 percent of the world's manufacturing. As the demand for cheap and reliable electronics continues to grow, so does the importance of semiconductor foundries. The first semiconductor foundry was opened in the 1950s, which was designed for making germanium transistors.

Semiconductor foundries are companies that manufacture silicon chips. (You can think of them as hardware factories that make chips.) The most common semiconductor foundry process is called "deposition," a fancy word for coating and building up layer upon layer of different materials onto a silicon wafer. One layer might be a single-atom layer of silicon, and another might be a few-billion-atom layer of gold. This deposition process is repeated repeatedly until you have a chip that contains millions of transistors, sensors, and other tiny components. When a foundry is making a chip for a client (that's called a "venture"), it's the client's job to create the chip design.

Types of Semiconductor Foundries

There are many different types of semiconductor foundries today and essential differences among them. The two most common semiconductor foundries are independent companies that specialize in semiconductor manufacturing, or fabs, and pure-play foundries such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), which the world's largest chipmakers own. While fabless companies can manufacture their chips, having a semiconductor foundry is essential because it gives chipmakers access to the latest technology. Since fabs are expensive to build, it spreads risk.

A semiconductor foundry is a place where semiconductor devices and integrated circuits are manufactured. They are used for developing products based on silicon and germanium, which are used in advanced electronic devices such as computers, cell phones, and consumer electronics. Besides, there are many other uses of semiconductor devices and integrated circuits in a variety of fields.

The semiconductor industry is a fast-paced, ever-changing business where new strategies and technologies are emerging almost every day. On the one hand, there are the fabless semiconductor companies, which refers to those semiconductor companies that do not own semiconductor manufacturing facilities. On the other hand, there are semiconductor foundries, which offer semiconductor manufacturing services to other companies.

 

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