Integrated device manufacturer

An integrated device manufacturer (IDM) is a semiconductor company which designs, manufactures, and sells integrated circuit (IC) products.

The term "IDM" is often used to refer to a company which handles semiconductor manufacturing in-house, compared to a fabless semiconductor company, which outsources production to a third-party semiconductor fabrication plant.

Examples of IDMs are Intel, Samsung, and Texas Instruments, examples of fabless companies are AMD, Nvidia, and Qualcomm, and examples of pure play foundries are GlobalFoundries, TSMC, and UMC.

The term IDM has become less accurate than when it was coined, due to the dynamic nature of the semiconductor industry.

OSATs

The term OSAT means "outsourced semiconductor assembly and test provider". OSATs have dominated IC packaging and testing.^[1]

Fabless operations

The terms fabless (fabrication-less), foundry, and IDM are now used to describe the role a company has in a business relationship. For example, Freescale owns and operates fabrication facilities (fab) where it manufactures many chip product lines, as a traditional IDM would. Yet it is known to contract with merchant foundries for other products, as would fabless companies.

Manufacturers

Many electronic manufacturing companies engage in business that would qualify them as an IDM:

Reading

• Understanding fabless IC technology By Jeorge S. Hurtarte, Evert A. Wolsheimer, Lisa M. Tafoya 1.4.1 Integrated device manufacturer Page 8

References

This page was last edited on 27 June 2024, at 05:07