Analogue foundry production on rise

This is according to market research firm Databeans, which said given a large number of new suppliers of mixed-signal and analogue application specific standard products (ASSP), combined with continued cost-controlling efforts by existing players, foundry production of analogue is increasing with a current market value of more than $7.5bn. The firm estimated overall market value of foundry semiconductor production in 2003 was $26.6bn.

Databeans also said outsourcing has stepped up and foundries now account for about 30 per cent of global analogue production even though large independent device manufacturers are still producing the majority amount of product internally.

For example, TSMC – which manufactures chips for companies such as Analog Devices, STMicroelectronics, Qualcomm and National Semiconductor – controls 52 per cent of the foundry market and is currently booked beyond factory capacity. This is a strong indicator of the healthiness of the foundry industry, which offers a compelling alternative to internal manufacturing, by providing leading edge advancements in technology, the firm said.

Key product areas driving growth of the foundry industry are application-specific logical devices, programmable logic devices, and other integrated circuits, except for MPUs and DRAM, Databeans reported.

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