An introduction to the semiconductor industry

If you are a student eager to make a choice to pursue an engineering degree in either electronics or associated subjects, you might be interested to know more about the semiconductor industry and the job opportunities it offers.  

The semiconductor industry only showed considerable growth in the later part of the 20th century. A large number of companies such as Intel, Texas Instruments, Synopsys, Dell, Altera, etc. have been in the VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) design business for many decades. 
A semiconductor chip comprises several hardware modules such as memories, logic foundation cells, IOs, clock circuitry, phase-locked loops, digital to analog or analog to digital converters, and custom blocks, also called Intellectual Property (IPs). Semiconductor design and fabrication are two main aspects of the semiconductor business.

Semiconductor design is an automated function these days, supported by Electronic Design Automation (EDA) companies, and their role is very important in this industry. EDA companies (for example, Mentor Graphics and Cadence) support the semiconductor business by providing software for the analysis, modeling, synthesis, formal verification, validation, and debugging of semiconductor designs.

VLSI chip fabrication requires clean energy and environment and highly skilled manpower. Semiconductor companies may have fabrication units (fabs) or may even be fabless. In these fabs,  semiconductor wafers are produced on a mass scale utilizing complex manufacturing techniques. Examples of fabless companies are Synopsys and Cadence, whereas those having fabs are Global Foundries and TSMC.  Companies such as Samsung  Electronics and ST Microelectronics perform both semiconductor design and fabrication.

The semiconductor industry faces the challenges of increasing design complexity as the chip size reduces drastically every five years (as per Moore's Law).

VLSI chip fabrication is driven by factors such as technology, features, time to market, applications, and competitive advantages. For any chip to be profitable, the time to market is a crucial factor, as competitors might be able to produce a similar chip at a lower price. Due to the cost involved in chip fabrication, it is essential for an IP to have a feature advantage or cost advantage to maintain profitability.

Applications utilizing the semiconductor chips have also seen a steep transition. From being limited to PCs, mobiles, TVs, and set-top boxes, there is an enormous rise in the market for tablets, micro-controllers, gaming consoles, automotive, infotainment, and industrial sensors. It is projected that Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications and Advanced Driver Assisted Systems (ADAS) will create a boom in the semiconductor industry. 


The semiconductor industry has shown a steep rise in mergers and acquisitions since 2014. A rise in fabrication and process costs with the advancement in technology has partly contributed to this consolidation. Chip fabrication using technologies below the 28 nm node is expected to incur additional expenses, contrary to Moore's law.


The VLSI industry offers roles such as physical design, layout design, analog circuit design, front-end or back-end design, design for test, design verification, design validation, test bench design, quality engineering, software development and testing, and other varied roles, including technical writing. Engineers can choose from these specialized roles depending on their skills and area of interest. 

---@Disclaimer:  The article does not intend to convey details about the topic discussed. It is only a brief overview of the author's view of the semiconductor industry.