Growing consumer market changing semiconductor industry

Citation

(2006), "Growing consumer market changing semiconductor industry", International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Vol. 55 No. 3/4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm.2006.07955cab.005

Growing consumer market changing semiconductor industry

The growth in the consumer electronics market may drive IC manufacturers to build more flexible “gigafabs” and encourage equipment makers to double their tools’ productivity, a TSMC senior executive told technologists at a recent ISMI Symposium.

Mark Liu, vice president of operations for TSMC (an ISMI member) and responsible for his company’s 300 mm production fabs, said the growing consumer IC market is changing the semiconductor industry by shortening product cycles and accelerating production times.

“The economics of the consumer market will drive the semiconductor industry to be more volatile, more diverse, and even more cost-sensitive,” Liu declared. “There is [opportunity] here, but we have to recognize the difficult set of demands.”