The role of product development technology group in the global semiconductor foundry business model

This paper describes the major integrated circuit (IC) product development technologies (PDT) and the role of the PDT group (PDTG) for enabling transition of semiconductor foundries from pure-play, manufacturing only to complete solutions provider like an integrated device manufacturer. In the microelectronics industry, a semiconductor foundry provides cost-effective integrated circuit manufacturing technology and wafer fabrication services to fabless IC design companies. However, besides contracting wafer fabrication, fabless companies, also, require new product development (NPD) solutions including design collaboration, technology customization, device models, and customer owned computer-aided-design tooling flow. Therefore, the role of PDTG is extremely critical in providing the required NPD services to customers. In this paper, the organization, functionality, and the role of PDTG in the transition of semiconductor foundries from wafer fabrication-only services to complete solutions provider are discussed.