The Study on Identifying the Required Competences in the Emerging Fabless IC Design Service Industry

Abstract

The semiconductor manufacturing model has evolved in the 1990s from entirely owned by Integrated Device Manufacturers (IDMs) to a specialized collaboration value chain composed of different key sub-industries. Continuous evolvement has driven the Integrated Circuit (IC) design service in becoming a critical and emerging sub-industry to the semiconductor value chain since year 2000. The IC design service companies are important enablers and mediators to integrate the IC design and manufacturing process in the semiconductor value chain. However, there is a lack of business or management related researches due to the fact that the IC design service industry is still in the emerging stage. Therefore, it is difficult to understand what competences an IC design service needs to possess in order to become successful. This research is composed of literature review and in-depth interviews with the focus group formed by the management members of the selected cases. Seven competences have been defined throughout the research as follow: IP design capability, integrated IP turnkey solution, customized design capability, integrated supply chain services for turnkey IC production, comprehensive design capability for various applications, effective reduction of new product development cost for customers, and integrated streamline manufacturing technologies for IC production. The contribution of this paper is to explore the essential competences of this emerging industry and to serve as a foundation for further extended researches.