Limits to Modularity: A Review of the Literature and Evidence from Chip Design

This working paper has been prepared as part of the East-West Center's research project on Globalization of Knowledge Work: Why is Chip Design Moving to Asia. In this paper, Dieter assesses what we know about the limits to modularity and their impact on firm organization and industry structure. He focuses on evidence form chip design, drawing on interview on 2002 and 2003 with a sample of 60 companies and 15 research institutions that are involved in chip design in the US, Taiwan, Korea, China and Malaysia. It is summarized "stylized" propositions of the modularity literature that are well-established, as well as predictions that are controversial. In addition, important limits to modularity and relevant management responses were reviewed.

VLSI Revisited - Revival in Japan

This paper describes the abundance of semiconductor consortia that have come into existence in Japan since the mid-1990s. They clearly reflect the ambition of the government - through its reorganized ministry METI and company initiatives - to regain some of the industrial and technological leadership that Japan has lost. The consortia landscape is very different in Japan compared with EU and the US. Outside Japan the universities play a much bigger and very important role. In Europe there has emerged close collaboration, among national government agencies, companies and the EU Commission in supporting the IT sector with considerable attention to semiconductor technologies. Another major difference, and possibly the most important one, is the fact that US and EU consortia include and mix partners from different areas of the semiconductor landscape including wafer makers, material suppliers, equipment producers and integrated device makers.semiconductors, Hitachi, Sony, Toshiba, Elpida, Renesas, Sematech, VLSI, JESSI, MEDEA, ASPLA, MIRAI, innovation system

VLSI REVISITED – REVIVAL IN JAPAN

This paper describes the abundance of semiconductor consortia that have come into existence in Japan since the mid-1990s. They clearly reflect the ambition of the government – through its reorganized ministry METI and company initiatives - to regain some of the industrial and technological leadership that Japan has lost. The consortia landscape is very different in Japan compared with EU and the US. Outside Japan the universities play a much bigger and very important role. In Europe there has emerged close collaboration, among national government agencies, companies and the EU Commission in supporting the IT sector with considerable attention to semiconductor technologies. Another major difference, and possibly the most important one, is the fact that US and EU consortia include and mix partners from different areas of the semiconductor landscape including wafer makers, material suppliers, equipment producers and integrated device makers.semiconductors; Hitachi; Sony; Toshiba; Elpida; Renesas; Sematech; VLSI; JESSI; MEDEA; ASPLA; MIRAI; innovation system

US Microelectronics Packaging Ecosystem: Challenges and Opportunities

The semiconductor industry is experiencing a significant shift from traditional methods of shrinking devices and reducing costs. Chip designers actively seek new technological solutions to enhance cost-effectiveness while incorporating more features into the silicon footprint. One promising approach is Heterogeneous Integration (HI), which involves advanced packaging techniques to integrate independently designed and manufactured components using the most suitable process technology. However, adopting HI introduces design and security challenges. To enable HI, research and development of advanced packaging is crucial. The existing research raises the possible security threats in the advanced packaging supply chain, as most of the Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT) facilities/vendors are offshore. To deal with the increasing demand for semiconductors and to ensure a secure semiconductor supply chain, there are sizable efforts from the United States (US) government to bring semiconductor fabrication facilities onshore. However, the US-based advanced packaging capabilities must also be ramped up to fully realize the vision of establishing a secure, efficient, resilient semiconductor supply chain. Our effort was motivated to identify the possible bottlenecks and weak links in the advanced packaging supply chain based in the US.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figure

A study of the foundry industry dynamics/

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2010.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 76-79).In the process of industrial evolution, it is a general tendency that companies which specialize in a specific value chain have emerged. These companies should construct a business eco-system based on their own platform to compete successfully with vertically integrated companies and other specialized companies. They continue to sustain their competitive advantage only when they share their ability to create value with other eco-system partners. The thesis analyzes the dynamics of the foundry industry. Through the top-down approach (how the semiconductor industry trends have influenced the foundry industry), the foundry market size is expected to grow continuously as the semiconductor industry becomes more horizontal due to exponential increase in IC manufacturing/design cost and focusing strategy on design or manufacturing capabilities. In addition, the bottom-up approach (how companies in the foundry industry compete with each other) indicated that previous key success factors such as time to market, economies of scale and learning curve effect are not necessary conditions any more in this industry. Rather, the success of a foundry company is mainly driven by successful management of eco-system partners based on leading process platform. However, sustainability of platform leadership in the foundry industry can always be threaten by continuous innovation in a technology driven industry, hold-up problem with eco-system partners and change of regulations. These factors are expected to make the foundry industry extremely dynamic despite first mover advantages.by Sang Jin Oh.S.M

From Confrontation to Coopetition in the Globalized Semiconductor Industry

The silicon chip is not only a symbol of marvellous technologies that are transforming industrial production and leisure time in society, but also of trade and technology conflicts while at the same time offering the potential for cooperation.The purpose of this paper is to show that the semiconductor industry has moved from being highly confrontational to being much more cooperative as is evidenced by the emergence of cross-national strategic alliances between companies, spanning R&D, product development, production and distribution.Over the last 15 years the semiconductor industry has experienced startling reversals of competitive fortune in which the USA dominated in 1970s, then Japan entered in 1980s, and in 1986 surpassed the USA as the largest producer of semiconductors with most US firms abandoning DRAM production due to price competition.This reversal of market position has become known as the X-curve. Since the early 1990s the Americans are on top again but with the Koreans and the Taiwanese coming on fast.With China and perhaps India coming on line in the present decade or so, these reversals in competitiveness will continue to play themselves out in the market.Due to external economies and spillover effects for other industries, this industry is considered to be a strategic sector, not only in the USA, where the industry came into existence, but also in Japan and Europe.Observing the excessive returns earned initially in this industry in the USA, Japanese companies wanted to shift these profits, at least in part, to Japan, for which the Japanese government provided support.The closing of the Japanese market both to imports and foreign direct investment undermined the initial American competitive strength.In order to counteract the loss of competitiveness the US industry reacted, besides by restructuring, by creating, with government funding, the research consortium SEMATECH, while the American government responded by concluding since 1986 bilateral trade agreements with Japan in which Japan initially agreed to "voluntarily" restrict its exports of semiconductors and to "voluntarily" expand the imports of American chips.In the mid-1980s Europe was a marginal player in the global competitive battle and suffered dependence on the USA and Japan.This was a consequence of decisions taken by European firms but part also lies in the fragmentation of the European market and the policy pursued by

Comparison of China and Japan’s Economic Development in the Semiconductor Industry

While Japan marked its success in surpassing the U.S. to dominate the semiconductor industry in 1986, the Chinese semiconductor industry transformed from a small sector into a global competitor. This thesis tracks and compares the developmental histories of this industry between China and Japan and analyzes the differences in government policy, economic systems, comparative advantage and trade policy in both countries, in order to ascertain the two countries’ industrial development strategies and governments’ impacts on the semiconductor industry. This analysis finds that Japan’s development strategy targeted a knowledge- and capitalintensive industry (semiconductor industry, in this case) by providing preferential assistances while deliberately keeping that market protected from foreign competitions to ensure that the industry had a high volume and a profitable base. When the Japanese achieved the economy of scale and cost competitiveness and gained enough production experiences, Japan expanded the market share by aggressive pricing and ultimately dominated the foreign market. On the other hand, China’s development strategy went from a protectionist strategy in a command economy—learning from the Japanese model—which focused on cultivating large stateowned enterprises to be national champions and protecting the market from foreign competition, to an export-oriented strategy in a relatively more market-oriented economy which encouraged foreign investment and leveraged China’s labor-abundant comparative advantage by cooperating with foreign firms

Photonic integrated circuit design in a foundry+fabless ecosystem

A foundry-based photonic ecosystem is expected to become necessary with increasing demand and adoption of photonics for commercial products. To make foundry-enabled photonics a real success, the photonic circuit design flow should adopt known concepts from analog and mixed signal electronics. Based on the similarities and differences between the existing photonic and the standardized electronics design flow, we project the needs and evolution of the photonic design flow, such as schematic driven design, accurate behavioral models, and yield prediction in the presence of fabrication variability

Outsourcing trends in semiconductor industry

Thesis (S.M. in Engineering and Management)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2010.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 82-83).Microelectronic devices traditionally were manufactured by companies that both designed and produced integrated chips. This process was important in 1970's and 1980's when the manufacturing processes required tweaking the design, understanding of the manufacturing processes and occasional need to redesign. As manufacturing techniques and standards evolved, companies have changed their business model and have started to outsource their manufacturing to merchant foundries. Semiconductor companies have also started to outsource the design and verification of their chips to third party design service companies and focus on core competence like research and development of new technologies and defining protocols. This trend has evolved even though the chips have become much more complex, hard to design and hard to manufacture. This thesis studies the different players in the supply chain, how each player has evolved and the challenges companies face in making decisions regarding outsourcing internal processes. It was found that the advancements in the downstream industries such as EDA, Design Suppliers and EMS have helped fabless companies remain competitive with IDM's (Integrated Device Manufacturers). The fabless companies compete in different markets that do not need the most advanced processing technologies used by leading-edge companies.by Karthikeyan Malli Mohan.S.M.in Engineering and Managemen

A gravity model analysis of South Korean semiconductor exports to a selected OECD group of countries

Treball Final de Grau en Economia. Codi: EC1049. Curs acadèmic: 2021/2022This paper estimates semiconductor trade flows between South Korea and a selected group of importing countries, from 2001 to 2020. Semiconductor exports are defined as the sum of HS8541 and HS8542 exports. It employs two specification of the gravity model, a classic one and an augmented one. For the estimates, I used a panel data regression and I have chosen a fixed effects model after rejecting Hausman’s null hypothesis. I find that standard variables of the gravity model, e.g. national income of both countries and distance are statistically significant, with their respective expected signs. In the augmented model, I find a positive effect of the Economic Complexity index of the importing country over the South Korean exports of semiconductors