Keeping Ahead of the Curve with Custom ASICs
Custom ASICs were not considered possible
for lower-volume industrial markets. In
addition, the semiconductor industry has
been laser-focused on supplying standard
parts to the homogenous, large-volume
consumer markets (the smart-phone being
the pinnacle). Today, with the slow-down in
the consumer segment, the semiconductor
industry is now heavily energized to seek out
new growth segments.
through integration, power budgeting and
cost reduction. With integration, it is
possible to incorporate, into a single piece of
silicon, in a single packaged chip, all the
circuitry needed to sense, calibrate, control
and communicate.
I NDUSTRY C HANGES
The level of changes in Industry is at an
unprecedented level. Industry 4.0 is driving
phenomenal
growth
in
hardware
requirements. The number of sensors being
deployed is growing year on year. In the
foundries the wafer capacity 3 is increasing
and silicon revenue continues to grow year
on year. Data released by SEMI shows this
growth in 200mm wafer size capacity in the
foundries. 200mm are typically the wafer
sizes for technology nodes greater than
0.18m.
In this paper, we will show that custom
silicon is no longer the expensive solution
unique to high-volume products. With the
increasing changes in technology, which will
be addressed later in the paper, custom
silicon is now economically viable for smaller
volumes (50k+ units/year). And with the
changes that the Industrial Internet of Things
is bringing, we will show how custom ASICs
are keeping suppliers ahead of the curve by
enabling their edge processing applications
3
https://m.eet.com/media/1309524/200mmforecastSEMI-min.png
IIC Journal of Innovation
- 34 -