A foundry is a company that specializes in semiconductor manufacturing.

Main roles:

・Wafer manufacturing

・Process development

・Volume production management

・Yield improvement

Foundries do not do design.

They receive design data from fabless companies and manufacture the chips.

Until the 1990s, most semiconductor companies were IDMs (design + manufacturing).

However, due to

・Ever-larger capital investment

・Rising technical difficulty

・Diversifying markets

design and manufacturing became separated.

It was the foundry model that made this division of labor possible.

Today’s foundry market is an oligopoly.

Main companies:

・TSMC (Taiwan)

・Samsung Foundry (South Korea)

・Intel Foundry (USA)

・GlobalFoundries (USA)

・SMIC (China)

TSMC in particular holds more than half of the global foundry market.

What foundries perform is the front-end process.

Typical processes:

・Deposition

・Lithography

・Etch

・Ion implantation

・CMP polishing

These are repeated hundreds of times to build circuit structures with dozens of layers.

It is an indicator of semiconductor performance.

Examples:

・7nm

・5nm

・3nm

・2nm (under development)

This indicates the level of circuit miniaturization.

The smaller it is, the

・Higher the performance

・Lower the power consumption

・Higher the density.

It is the core of leading-edge processes.

EUV (Extreme Ultraviolet) Lithography

Features:

・Wavelength of 13.5nm

・Formation of ultra-fine patterns

・Equipment price of 30 billion yen or more

Only ASML can make this equipment.

For this reason, EUV equipment is a bottleneck for the semiconductor industry.

This is the most important indicator in foundry management.

Yield is the proportion of good chips.

Example:

If 80 out of 100 chips made are good, the yield is 80%.

When yield is low, the result is

・Higher costs

・Supply shortages

・Worsening profits.

There are three reasons it is difficult.

・Enormous capital investment

・Rapid technology updates

・Dependence on utilization rates

A leading-edge fab costs 2–3 trillion yen to build.

When the utilization rate falls, it quickly goes into the red.

Foundries are directly linked to national security.

Reasons:

・AI

・Military

・Communications

・Automotive

All of these depend on semiconductors.

For this reason, national support such as

・The U.S. CHIPS Act

・The EU Chips Act

・Rapidus in Japan

is increasing rapidly.

Competition is intensifying.

Main axes:

・Process scaling

・Advanced packaging

・Production capacity

TSMC in particular also has an advantage in packaging (CoWoS).

Integration not only of the front-end but also with the back-end is progressing.

Future focal points:

・2nm process

・GAA transistors

・3D stacking

・Chiplet support

In addition, DTCO, which integrates design and manufacturing, will become important.

・Foundries are companies specializing in semiconductor manufacturing

・They turn fabless designs into chips

・TSMC is the world’s largest

・EUV is the core of leading-edge processes

・Capital investment and yield decide the game

1.What are the main roles of a foundry company?

2.Why is EUV lithography important?

3.How does yield affect foundry management?

 

Column Supervisor: Koji Kakumoto (President, OTIS Co., Ltd.)

After studying abroad and working in planning and development at a trading company, he joined OTIS Co., Ltd. in 2011. While primarily working in the Corporate Planning Department, he has also served concurrently in manufacturing and technical divisions, and since 2018 has served as President, working to drive business growth and strengthen the organization.

 

This article is a general technical explanation intended for educational purposes and does not refer to any specific company, product, or technology.