[career planning for Digital IC graduates] Chap.1 overview of IC industry chain and summary of representative enterprises

Preface ：23 This year's graduate students , Numbers IC Direction engineer . Let's learn together ~

IC Industrial chains and companies

Chip company Design chip —— Agent factory production chip —— Seal and test the factory Package test ——— Machine manufacturers purchase chips for machine production

1. Chip supplier

chart 1 The life course of the chip ： The process of turning sand into gold

1.1 IDM（Intergrated Device Manufacture） Set design 、 manufacture 、 Companies with integrated products

   The enterprise includes slave circuit design 、 The whole manufacturing process from wafer manufacturing to package testing , Companies that sell their own brand products , Also known as integrated device manufacturing company . Its Representative enterprises With Intel （Intel）、 samsung （SAMSUNG）、 hynix （SK Hynix）、 Magnesium light （Micron）、 TI （Texas Instruments,TI） etc. .

chart 2 Chip supplier classification

1.2 Fabless Design House

   That is, an integrated circuit design company without a production line ,Fabless Design, develop, promote and sell chips by ourselves , The production related business is outsourced to professional manufacturers .
   Its On behalf of the enterprise Including Qualcomm 、 broadcom 、 mediatek 、 Hayes 、 Zhan Rui 、MPS etc. . This kind of enterprise and professional IP The difference between design and service companies is ： No production line IC design company has its own chip products , and IP The company only provides design and services , No physical chip products .

1.3 Foundry/Wafer Foundry

   Integrated circuit wafer OEM enterprise （Wafer Foundry） It refers to a business model in which an enterprise focuses on providing IC manufacturing order service but does not carry out product design itself , Through large-scale investment in the construction of wafer production lines , Develop process platform and process technology and continue to upgrade technology , Provide wafer manufacturing services for IC design enterprises to make profits .
Mainly undertake Fabless Production and packaging test tasks , On behalf of the enterprise Such as TSMC （TSMC）、GlobalFoundry、 smic （SMIC）、 Tailian power （UMC） etc. , The sealed and tested factory has the sun and moonlight （ASE）、 Depend on （Amkor）、 Jiangsu Changdian, etc .

1.4 Closure test factory (OSAT)

   Outsourcing semiconductor packaging and testing factory （Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly & Test(OSAT))
Integrated circuit packaging test belongs to the later stage of integrated circuit product manufacturing （Back End） working procedure . Package test refers to the work after the wafer is manufactured , Process the exposed wafer , Thus, it can be separately installed to PCB Independent devices on .

1.5 IC Wafer manufacturing industry

1.5.1 Mask manufacturer （Photo Mask Manufacturer)

   During wafer manufacturing , It requires photolithography to form specific patterns on the wafer , And dry etching is carried out according to this figure 、 Wet etching or cleaning 、 Ion implantation 、 Deposition and other processes , The essential tool in the lithography process is to make the mask of the required geometry . Mask manufacturing refers to converting the circuit layout of the design company into physical graphics and presenting them on the mask , Its core is the transfer of graphics 、 Layered processing and protection of data security .

1.5.2 Semiconductor equipment manufacturing company （Semiconductor Equipment Manufacturer)

   Semiconductor equipment manufacturing company , It refers to the supply of various wafer manufacturing 、 encapsulation 、 test 、 Testing equipment or instruments , And provide corresponding technical support and services .

1.5.3 Semiconductor material manufacturing company （Semiconductor Materials Manufacturer)

   Semiconductor material manufacturer , In addition to the manufacturer who supplies various specifications of semiconductor substrate material wafers , It also includes the supply of electronic grade gases required for wafer manufacturing and packaging testing 、 chemical 、 Metal target 、 Photoresist 、 Grinding fluid and other materials .

2. EDA industry （Electronic Design Automation）

   utilize EDA Tools , Electronic designers can start from the concept 、 Algorithm 、 Protocol, etc. began to design electronic systems , A lot of work can be done by computer , And electronic products can be designed from the circuit 、 From performance analysis to design IC Layout or PCB The whole process of layout is automatically processed on the computer .

  EDA yes IC Necessary design tool software in electronic industry , yes IC The upstream sub industry of the industrial chain , The number of companies is relatively small , The representative enterprise is Cadence、Synopsys etc. .“ If a worker wants to do a good job, he must sharpen his tools first ”,IC The most important weapon necessary for design is EDA Software , therefore EDA The industry will never die ; With IC Increase of design complexity , Development of new technology ,IC Industry needs more advanced weapons , therefore EDA The industry still has great room for development .
  EDA Technology refers to the use of computers as hardware platform tools , Adopt computer aided design （Computer Aided Design,CAD） A computer software system developed on the basis of technology , According to hardware description language HDL（ Include Verilog HDL and VHDL etc. ）, Finished product design RTL Source code , Automatically complete logical compilation 、 Simplification 、 Module segmentation 、 Synthesis and timing optimization 、 Automatic layout / wiring （ Simulate manual full custom layout design ）、 front / Post simulation , Until the adaptation compilation for a specific target chip 、 Logical mapping and DFM Simulation and optimization of effect 、GDS Data generation , Finally, it forms a new technology of integrated circuit chip or integrated circuit system design .

  TCAD（Technology Computer Aided Design） Technology also belongs to EDA technology , It mainly simulates and optimizes the process and devices . International large EDA The company takes advantage of its own design tools , Already involved IP Design and service areas .

3. IP industry （Intellectual Property）

  IP Is used for IC And it is a pre designed circuit function module , yes IC A sub industry in the industrial chain , The number of companies is also relatively small . With the development of semiconductor technology , The increase of chip integration ,IP stay IC Play an increasingly important role in design , Its significance lies in greatly shortening IC Development time , Improve design quality , Reduce design risk , therefore IP It's also IC Design important weapons in common use .
  IP The reuse technology has broad prospects , suffer IC Attention of design enterprises ,IP Nuclear has become IC An important intellectual property of design enterprises .IP The main suppliers of nuclear power include wafer foundry （Foundry） And independent IP Nuclear Suppliers .
   At present, international IP The general business model of the market is the basic license fee （License Fee） And royalties （Royalty） The combination of ∶ The design company pays a large sum of money first IP Technology licensing fee , In order to obtain the integration of the IP And after the chip design is completed, it is sold with the IP The right of the chip . Once the chip is designed and sold , The design company also needs to calculate the average selling price of the chip （ASP） In proportion （ Usually in 1%～3% Between ） Pay royalties （Royalty） to IP manufacturer .
   Usually IP The manufacturer will use the licensing fee paid by the design company to pay a certain amount IP Development costs 、 The company's business operation costs and personnel costs , And the royalties charged （Royalty） Part is the profitable part of the company . No matter the size of the company , This is almost a conventional rule , It's also IP The survival of the company .
On behalf of the enterprise ARM

reference

1. 《“ hu ” say IC—— Rookie engineer, perfect upgrade 》
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   https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1wZ4y187B5?spm_id_from=333.999.0.0&vd_source=0dde695ace40ff82009891b1891e4cb6
3. Integrated circuit industry chain structure and enterprise type
   https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/425134630
4. IC Xiuzhen Academy IC What are the good companies in the industry ？（ Foreign enterprises ）
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5. IC Xiuzhen Academy IC What are the good companies in the design industry ？（ Domestic ）
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6. Three minutes to understand the whole process of chip design and job distribution
   https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1df4y1g7L2?spm_id_from=333.999.0.0&vd_source=0dde695ace40ff82009891b1891e4cb6