In accordance with recent marketing research by Technavio, published on the Business Wire website in 2017, the top five leading global semiconductor foundry players are: TSMC, Global Foundries, UMC, SMIC, Samsung. Win Semiconductor also attracts attention from certain technologies.[1]
Every manufacturer offers a vast range of manufacturing technologies for semiconductors for electronics.
TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Manufacturing Company Limited) is known for its vast technology portfolio. TSMC is producing its 0.5μm up to 11μm MEMS Technology. TSMC first introduced WLCSP (wafer level chip scale packaging) technology. WLCSP is the next level of packaging technology, that differs from traditional technology as the IC is packaged on the wafer level, which is an extension of the fab process.
Here protection is on the device, it interconnects, and packages, so the final packaged device appears the same size as the initial die. (Figure 1). TSMC offers other memory solutions like One-Time Programmable (OTP), Multiple-Time Programmable (MTP) memory, Flash memory, resistive RAM, Embedded NVM technologies with fast computing capacity, small flash dimensions, and low power consumptions.
TSMC presented in 2017 the 22nm UL Power and RF technologies for popular IoT and automotive applications. TSMC offers options of 0.5μm to 16nm of analogue process portfolio for different applications, including consumer electronics. The company is also known for its i portfolio, with processes from 0.5μm to 40nm – the last one was qualified last year for applications like AMOLED display drivers for smartphones. TSMC offers advanced Embedded DRAM process technologies and Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (BCD) process technologies. TSMC works with manufacturers of electronic components like Texas Instruments, Intel, Sony, NVIDIA, NXP Semiconductors and many others. [2]
Global Foundries is another provider of technologies for electronic components manufacturers and is known for its CMOS, RF, Silicon Photonics and ASICs technologies. CMOS processes of Global Foundries include 14nm FinFET, FD-SOI technology, 28nm, 40nm, 55nm, 65nm, 130nm, 180nm, Analogue, Power, MEMS, RF technologies, and Embedded Memory technology. RF processes of Global Foundries include SiGe HP, SiGe PA, RF SOI, and RF CMOS processes. [3]
UMC (United Manufacturing Corporation) is known for its 14nm and 28nm processes, BCD, Embedded NVM, IoT, Embedded HV and RF technologies. [5]
SMIC is known for its 28nm, 40nm , 55nm, 65nm technologies, 90nm, 110nm and 130nm, 150nm and 180nm, 250nm and 350nm technologies, so SMIC combine Analogue, Power, IGBT, NVM, Mixed and RF signal, MEMS and IoT solutions. [6]
[1] “Top 5 Vendors in the Global Semiconductor Foundry Market from 2017 to 2021: Technavio”, www.businesswire.com [2] www.tsmc.com [3] www.globalfoundries.com [4] www.umc.com [5] www.smics.com
