ams OSRAM объяснила стратегию инвестиций в зрелые техпроцессы и конкуренцию с китайскими фабриками

Earlier this year ams OSRAM sold its Entertainment and Industry Lamps business to Ushio, sold its CMOS Image Sensor business to indie Semiconductor and sold its non-optical sensor portfolio to Infineon to raise €500m and focus on digital photonics like micro-photodiode arrays for datacentres and AR. Last year the company got a grant of $227m under the EU Chips Act to expand the cleanroom at its fab in Premstätten, Austria, as part of a $567m total project. Asked by Electronics Weekly if investing in mature node fabs was wise in view of the vast amounts ($38bn last year and $50bn the year before according to SEMI) being spent by China on mature node fab, Mahdi Mekic, head of the Full Service Foundry (FSF) Business Line at ams OSRAM, replied: “Our market intelligence shows that the demand for mature nodes – driven among other reasons by AI and AR/VR booms, both of which require PMIC solutions – is growing faster than capacity expansions. So, we are convinced that there will be enough business for us as well as for new Chinese fabs,” said Mekic, “and with our automotive quality, 40-plus years foundry track record, European footprint, full service offering etc, we believe that we are good positioned to compete against competition. “As for the business sense behind investing into mature nodes in Europe, the fact is that major foundries – most of which are in the Far East – continue to run after the ‘next big thing’ that is, they focus on miniaturisation of geometries and are developing technologies suitable for advanced digital processors used in AI and other high performance computing applications,” added Mekic, “as those technologies become available – and because they yield high profits given their novelty, their strong demand and high growth – foundries are discontinuing mature technologies in their fabs to make space for equipment needed for manufacturing on the new process nodes. “The reality, however, is that the demand for analogue and mixed signal designs is also growing, because the world we live in is analogue and, as we build various digital systems around us, all those systems require analogue circuits to sense and to interface with the world around them,” continued Mekic. “This migration to advanced digital nodes by large foundries in the Far East therefore presents an opportunity for us in Europe to serve unwavering demand for mature nodes which offer a proven and cost-effective solution for analogue and mixed signal designs.” What, asked EW, makes the company think its products are safe against Chinese replication and commoditisation? “We do not consider replication and commoditisation from China a major threat,” replied Mekic. “Copying IC designs is costly and it takes time and effort. Even cloned ICs require verification, characterisation and qualification, all of which takes significant resources and requires dedicated skills and knowhow. For this reason, the business case for such endeavour requires that ICs to be copied are consumed in very large volumes (you need to sell a lot of replicas to make your effort and investment pay off). Those large volumes primarily come from consumer applications, whereas majority of our customers serve industrial, medical and automotive markets. Volumes in such applications are not as large, and therefore replicating is less economically attractive. “We also serve customers with use cases in consumer devices, which do run in high volumes. However, product lifecycle in consumer space is very short. Every few years there is a new, upgraded variant with new features and improved performance,” added Mekic. “So, if you want to clone such an IC, by the time you get the opportunity to replicate it and get it ready for market entry, the market will have moved on to the next generation product. This is another discouragement element for would-be cloners. “Lastly, ICs with predominantly digital circuitry are easier to clone because they run on binary logic rather than delicate silicon physics,” said Mekic. “Our customers on the other hand develop primarily analogue and mixed signal circuits which inherently resist direct replication due to the fundamental physics of analogue silicon design. Unlike digital chips – where logic can be extracted and re-manufactured automatically on almost any production line – analogue performance relies entirely on deep, foundry-specific manufacturing recipes. “Replicating an analogue layout with a microscope is only a fraction of the equation. Factors such as microscopic doping profiles, thermal drift, precision component matching, and factory-level laser trimming cannot be ‘copied’ from the physical die,” continued Mekic, “without access to our exact manufacturing process and proprietary calibration algorithms, any attempt to clone our analogue products results in severely degraded performance, instability across temperature ranges, and unacceptable failure rates. For customers requiring precision, reliability, and guaranteed performance, direct analogue clones simply do not serve as viable replacements.” Does the company have areas where it has unique advantages? asked EW. “No other semiconductor manufacturer in Europe offers TSMC compatible 180nm automotive grade 0 qualified technology, with optical filters for sensing applications and Through-Silicon-Vias for chip-scale packaging,” replied Mekic. “Furthermore, there is a lot which makes us unique. For example, technology choice: while large foundries chase after the next advanced node suitable for devices with high processing power which are in high demand in our increasingly digital world, ams OSRAM specialises in mature technologies suitable for analogue and mixed signal designs which, even in the digital age, are indispensable parts of most computing and sensing systems. These proven process nodes offer high robustness and reliability, in combination with cost-effectiveness,” said Mekic. “Longevity of manufacturing processes: in their quest to provide more capacity to the next gen technologies with larger wafers and smaller feature sizes, often driven by short cycles of consumer devices, large foundries are known to repurpose their existing factories for new use, which leads to discontinuation of older manufacturing processes. ams OSRAM is known for serving industrial, automotive and medical end markets and for keeping existing technology nodes alive well beyond what a typical foundry would do,” said Mekic. “Speciality offerings: next to our CMOS manufacturing line, ams OSRAM is technology leader in a number of adjacent specialty offerings, something large foundries rarely have in their portfolio. This includes, for example, optical filter coatings used in sensing applications with spectral and hyperspectral capabilities,” added Mekic, “also among out offerings are Through Silicon Vias which enable smaller packaging and 3D integration of silicon ICs. For use cases which involve large scale sensors – sometimes as large as one sensor per wafer – ams OSRAM has capability for die stitching whereby IC sizes bigger than a single reticle can be linked together. “Full service offering: while foundries typically work in a pure play mode, meaning they deliver wafers only, ams OSRAM can serve our customers by providing test development, production wafer probing, packaging and final testing. This gives our customers a choice to source from us any of the following: untested wafers, tested wafers or packaged and final-tested parts,” continued Mekic. “Customisation willingness: while it is very difficult to get manufacturing process customisations at large foundries, many ams OSRAM customers depend on unique process tweaks or customised physical devices which were developed specifically to the tailored needs of a particular application or use case,” said Mekic. “Service level offered to smaller customers: customers with relatively small numbers of wafers in their annual demand often complain that the level of service, attention and prioritisation they get at large foundries is below their expectation and satisfaction,” added Mekic, “given the relative size of ams OSRAM, customers which may be deemed insignificant at larger foundries, by default get higher status and recognise that they are important to our business.”