Types of Integrated Circuit Corporations

Abstract

Driven by Moore’s law, the integrated circuit (IC) industry is progressed at high speed with innovations and development and already fundamentally impacts human being toward high quality life. At the same time, the industry is also evolving quickly from highly vertical integration mode toward lateral collaboration. As a result, new types of companies and sub-industries were evolved from traditional integrated device manufacturers (IDMs), to fabless design houses, module manufacturers, wafer foundries, IP design and services, packing houses, outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) companies, photomask manufacturers, semiconductor equipment manufacturers, semiconductor material manufacturers, electronic design automation (EDA) vendors, and IC component distributors. As the industry approaching more mature, the evolution of IC industry continues. There are also signs of merging business modes together, for example, system houses starting circuit design (e.g., Apple, Huawei); EDA company, fabless design house, and foundry companies also developing of IPs (e.g., Synopsis, Cadence, GlobalFoundries); and some wafer manufacturers also in advanced packaging business (e.g., TSMC). It appears the IC industry chain is continuously evolving with the development of economy and technology.