Course Review: IPC’s New Semiconductor Course Provides a Thorough Layman’s View

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Taking the course, A Technical Overview of the Semiconductor CHIP Industry by Cheah Soo Lan wasn’t just a professional box to check for me; it was an opportunity to understand the technical backbone of a field that directly influences the work I do at IPC. While I’m not immersed in the technical aspects of semiconductors day to day, learning about this landscape allows me to better align our funding pursuits with the strategic needs of the industry.

Before this course, I had a general sense of the semiconductor industry, especially its reliance on global supply chains and the role of countries like Taiwan and Korea in advanced chip manufacturing. But the course provided far more depth, particularly in showing how intricate and vast the ecosystem has become, and how reliant modern economies and industries are on these small yet essential components. This is information I was aware of but gained a deeper understanding of, especially in terms of how this complexity ties into government relations and economic strategy.

One of the highlights for me was learning about the technological innovations pushing the industry forward. For example, memory chips are no longer just flat but are being made denser by stacking them over 100 layers high. Additionally, electronic design automation (EDA) companies are incorporating artificial intelligence to automate certain parts of the chip design process, which speeds up time to market for increasingly complex chips. These were fascinating developments that I hadn't fully appreciated before, and they underline how innovation is happening at every step of the semiconductor manufacturing process, from design to production.

A particular takeaway for me was the importance of foundries, which are now critical players in the ecosystem. Historically, companies that designed chips also manufactured them in-house, a vertically integrated model known as integrated device manufacturing (IDM). Today, however, foundries that specialize purely in manufacturing, like TSMC and Samsung, have the advantage of economies of scale. The shift from the IDM model to relying on foundries, exemplified by companies like AMD and, more recently, Intel, highlights the ongoing evolution of the business side of semiconductors.

Read the rest of this review in the Winter 2025 issue of IPC Community.