Foundries not dead, just evolving says Globalfoundries CEO

Foundries not dead, just evolving says Globalfoundries CEO

SAN FRANCISCO--The fabless/foundry model may have its issues, but it’s a long way from being dead, said Globalfoundries CEO Ajit Manocha, speaking at the International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) here this week (Dec. 11).

Manocha dismissed various industry observers who have claimed the fabless model is on its way to extinction, claiming instead, the foundry model was seeing huge growth rates and continuing to outpace the semiconductor industry.

Indeed, it was integrated device manufacturers (IDMs), said Manocha, who should be wary of the future, because aside from a small number of anomalies with the financial wherewithal or stubbornness to continue along the path, the integrated model was, in his opinion, a dead end.

While Manocha admitted the impact of mobility had certainly put pressure on the foundry model, forcing his company to pick up the pace, the CEO said he still firmly believed his firm had what it took to make it through to the next round of ever lower nodes, even as other big foundry players drop off.



“Only four players have capabilities to offer leading edge technologies beyond 28nm,” he said, citing, Intel, Samsung, TSMC and Globalfoundries. This, he said, made the foundry market opportunity all the more compelling and concentrated at the leading edge, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of some 37 percent in the next three years. In terms of monetary value, Manocha said the leading edge now represented a $27.5 billion opportunity, something Globalfoundries doesn’t intend to relinquish in a hurry.



That’s not to say there weren’t still challenges to keep Manocha awake at night. The Globalfoundries chief said potential problems could be divided twofold into technical and economic challenges, with each presenting difficulties still needing to be overcome.

On the technical challenge side, Manocha spoke of the hardships of achieving the required power density for the right battery life, at a low cost, while ensuring the technology remained reliable and the interconnects held up. Retaining talent and being able to collaborate with clients at the earliest stages was also cited as a technical difficulty, but ones Manocha said Globalfoundries was committed to overcoming.



On the economic side, Manocha spoke of the trials caused by cyclicality and capacity, design and manufacturing costs, the geographic risks impacting supply, IP and competition issues.

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