CONNECTING THE COMPOUND SEMICONDUCTOR COMMUNITY
October 2010 Volume 16 Number 7
Editor-in-Chief David Ridsdale
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Consultant Editor Richard Stevenson PhD
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Bill Dunlop Uprichard – CEO Stephen Whitehurst – COO Jan Smoothy – CFO Haroon Malik, Jackie Cannon, Scott Adams, Sharon Cowley, Sukhi Bhadal
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The phrase “real men have fabs” summed up the feeling within the silicon industry a decade or so ago. But times have changed. Capital expenditure costs have soared as node sizes have come down, and today, aside from a very small number of heavyweights, silicon chipmakers now outsource production.
Within the III-V industry, it seems that some sectors are taking a slow stroll down a similar path. While LED manufacture, certainly by the biggest players, is still very much an in-house affair, the trend amongst the producers of GaAs chips for wireless applications is to outsource some production.
This transition started several years ago, with contracts such as the epiwafer supply agreement between Skyworks and Kopin. But it has been gathering pace, thanks to moves such as Anadigics’ pursuit of a hybrid manufacturing model. IQE is used as a source for epiwafers, and some of the company’s chip production is handled by WIN Semiconductors.
Activities such as this are helping to swell IQE’s revenue, which is increasingly dominated by sales of wireless products. But the continued success of this global epiwafer supplier may depend on whether it loses market share to a new player in the wireless epiwafer business: RFMD. Yes, that’s right, the world’s biggest in-house manufacturer of GaAs RF chips is opening the doors of its MBE facility.
RFMD’s motivations for entering the epiwafer supplier market are entirely predictable. It’s keen to open up a new revenue stream and net a good return on its substantial investment in capital equipment.
The company is certainly well equipped for its new venture. It can offer customers a selection of multi-wafer 6-inch MBE kits equipped with the latest in-situ monitoring tools, plus a strong portfolio of metrology tools for characterizing these epiwafers. This includes a multi-field Hall probe for non- destructive measurements of mobility and carrier concentration in multiple layers.
Armed with these attributes, RFMD should enjoy some success as an epiwafer supplier.
What will be interesting to see is if this offering leads to further outsourcing of epiwafer growth, and whether it spurs the trend amongst GaAs chip makers to move away from vertical integration.
Richard Stevenson PhD Consultant Editor
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editorialview
Shifting landscapes
October 2010
www.compoundsemiconductor.net 3
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