Foundry model

This article is about the business model for making integrated circuits. For other uses of the term foundry, see foundry (disambiguation).

The foundry model is a microelectronics engineering and manufacturing business model consisting of a semiconductor fabrication plant, or foundry, and an integrated circuit design operation, each belonging to separate companies or subsidiaries.[1][2][3][4]

Integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) design and manufacture integrated circuits. Many companies, known as fabless semiconductor companies, only design devices; merchant or pure play foundries only manufacture devices for other companies, without designing them. Examples of IDMs are Intel, Samsung, and Texas Instruments, examples of pure play foundries are GlobalFoundries, TSMC, and UMC, and examples of fabless companies are AMD, Nvidia, and Qualcomm.

Integrated circuit production facilities are expensive to build and maintain. Unless they can be kept at nearly full use, they will become a drain on the finances of the company that owns them. The foundry model uses two methods to avoid these costs: fabless companies avoid costs by not owning such facilities. Merchant foundries, on the other hand, find work from the worldwide pool of fabless companies, through careful scheduling, pricing, and contracting, keep their plants in full use.

  1. ^ M. Liu (14 May 2021). "Taiwan and the foundry model". Nature Electronics. 4 (5): 318–320. doi:10.1038/s41928-021-00576-y.
  2. ^ S. K. Saha (25–27 June 2012). "The Role of Semiconductor Foundries in Advanced Integrated Circuit Product Development". International Technology Management Conference. pp. 32–35. doi:10.1109/ITMC.2012.6306393. ISBN 978-1-4673-2134-1. S2CID 7329163.
  3. ^ F. C. Tseng (8–11 December 1996). "Foundry Technologies". International Electron Devices Meeting. Technical Digest. pp. 19–24. doi:10.1109/iedm.1996.553030. ISBN 0-7803-3393-4. S2CID 40610229.
  4. ^ J.Y.-C. Sun (1998). Burnett, David; Wristers, Dirk; Tsuchiya, Toshiaki (eds.). "Foundry Technology Trend". Proceedings of SPIE. Microelectronic Device Technology II. 3506: 19–24. Bibcode:1998SPIE.3506...19S. doi:10.1117/12.323970. S2CID 173181521.