0 Semiconductors Industry

Intel is one of the world's largest chipmakers. It designs and manufactures microprocessors for the global personal computer and data center markets. Intel pioneered the x86 architecture for microprocessors. It is also the prime proponent of Moore's law for advances in semiconductor manufacturing. While Intel's server processor business has benefited from the shift to the cloud, the firm has also been expanding into new adjacencies as the personal computer market has declined. These include areas such as the Internet of Things, memory, artificial intelligence, and automotive. Intel has been active on the merger and acquisitions front, recently acquiring Altera, Mobileye, Nervana, and Movidius in order to assist its efforts in non-PC arenas.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing is the world's largest dedicated chip foundry, with over 50% market share in 2017 (according to IC Insights). TSMC was founded in 1987 as a joint venture of Philips, the government of Taiwan, and private investors. It went public as an ADR in the U.S. in 1997. TSMC's scale and high-quality technology allow the firm to generate solid operating margins, even in the highly competitive foundry business. Furthermore, the shift to the fabless business model has created tailwinds for TSMC. The foundry leader has an illustrious customer base, including Apple and Nvidia, that looks to apply cutting-edge process technologies to its semiconductor designs.

Texas Instruments Inc is a Dallas-based generates about 95% of its revenue from semiconductors and the remainder from its well-known calculators. Texas Instruments is the world's largest maker of analog chips, which are used to process real-world signals such as sound and power. Texas Instruments also has a leading market share position in digital signal processors, used in wireless communications, and microcontrollers used in a wide variety of electronics applications.

Broadcom--the combined entity of Broadcom and Avago--boasts a highly diverse product portfolio across an array of end markets. Avago focused primarily on radio frequency filters and amplifiers used in high-end smartphones, such as the Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy devices, in addition to an assortment of solutions for wired infrastructure, enterprise storage, and industrial end markets. Legacy Broadcom targeted networking semiconductors, such as switch and physical layer chips, broadband products (such as television set-top box processors), and connectivity chips that handle standards such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The company recently acquired Brocade and CA Technologies to bolster its offerings in enterprise storage and mainframe software, respectively.

Nvidia is a leading designer of graphics chips that enhance the experience on computing platforms. The firm's chips are used in a variety of end markets, including high-end PCs for gaming, data centers, and automotive infotainment systems. In recent years, the firm has broadened its focus from traditional PC graphics applications such as gaming to more complex and favorable opportunities, including artificial intelligence and autonomous driving, which leverage the high-performance capabilities of the firm's graphics processing units.

Founded in 1984 and based in the Netherlands, ASML is a leading manufacturer of photolithography systems used in the production of semiconductors. Photolithography is the process in which a light source is used to expose circuit patterns from a photomask onto a semiconductor wafer. ASML's products are used at every major semiconductor manufacturer, including Intel, Samsung, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing.

Qualcomm develops and licenses wireless technology and also designs chips for smartphones. The company's key patents revolve around CDMA and OFDMA technologies, which are standards in wireless communications that are the backbone of all 3G and 4G networks. The firm is poised to be a leader in 5G as well. Qualcomm's IP is licensed by virtually all wireless device makers. The firm is also the world's largest wireless chip vendor, supplying many premier handset makers with leading-edge processors.

Micron has historically focused on providing DRAM for PCs and servers. The firm has expanded into the NAND flash memory market over the past decade. It increased its DRAM scale with the purchase of Elpida (completed in mid-2013) and Inotera (completed in December 2016).

Applied Materials is one of the world's largest suppliers of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, providing materials engineering solutions to help make nearly every chip in the world. The firm's systems are used in every process step with the exception of lithography. Key tools include those for chemical and physical vapor deposition, etching, chemical mechanical polishing, wafer- and reticle-inspection, critical dimension measurement, and defect-inspection scanning electron microscopes.

Analog Devices is a leading analog, mixed signal, and digital signal processing chipmaker. The firm has a significant market share lead in converter chips, which are used to translate analog signals to digital and vice versa. The company serves tens of thousands of customers, and more than half of its chip sales are made to industrial and automotive end markets. Analog Devices' chips are also incorporated into wireless infrastructure equipment.

Lam Research Corp manufactures equipment used to fabricate semiconductors. The firm is focused on the etch, deposition, and clean markets, which are key steps in the semiconductor manufacturing process, especially for 3D NAND flash storage, advanced DRAM, and leading-edge logic/foundry chipmakers. Lam's flagship Kiyo, Vector, and Sabre products are sold in all major geographies to key customers such as Samsung Electronics and TSMC.

Advanced Micro Devices designs and produces microprocessors and low-power processor solutions for the computer and consumer electronics industries. The majority of the firm's sales are in the computer market via CPUs and GPUs. AMD acquired graphics processor and chipset maker ATI in 2006 in an effort to improve its positioning in the PC food chain. In 2009, the firm spun out its manufacturing operations to form a foundry joint venture, GlobalFoundries.

NXP Semiconductors is a leading supplier high performance mixed signal products. The firm acquired Freescale Semiconductors in 2015 and now has significant market share in automotive market where it supplies microcontrollers and analog chips into automotive clusters, powertrains, infotainment systems, and radars. NXP Semiconductors also serves industrial and Internet of Things, mobile, and communications infrastructure.

Founded in 1984, Xilinx is the top designer of FPGAs by market share. Its chips are critical in the performance of various devices in the communications, data processing, industrial, consumer, and automotive markets. Xilinx designs and sells chips, but it outsources manufacturing to third-party chip foundries such as TSMC.

KLA Corp designs and manufactures yield-management and process-monitoring and control systems for the semiconductor industry. The systems are used to analyze the manufacturing process at various steps in a product's development. The firm's laser-scanning products are used for wafer qualification, process monitoring, and equipment monitoring. KLA also provides inspection tools and systems for optical metrology and e-beam metrology.

Microchip became an independent company in 1989 when it was spun off from General Instrument. More than half of revenue comes from MCUs, which are used in a wide array of electronic devices from remote controls to garage door openers to power windows in autos. The company's strength lies in lower-end 8-bit MCUs that are suitable for a wider range of less technologically advanced devices, but the firm has expanded its presence in higher-end MCUs and analog chips as well.

A merger between Italian firm SGS Microelettronica and the nonmilitary business of Thomson Semiconductors in France formed STMicroelectronics in 1987. STMicro is a leader in analog and mixed signal chips, particularly as a supplier to the industrial and automotive industries.

Marvell Technology designs integrated circuits primarily for data storage, networking, and communications. Historically, the firm focused on storage, where it is still a key supplier to hard-disk drive and solid-state drive makers but has strategically emphasized networking to offset declining HDD technology. The firm has since diversified and supplies chips to the networking and consumer electronic spaces. Marvell outsources its production to third-party foundries.

Maxim Integrated Products Inc makes high-performance analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits. The company offers a wide range of products serving a host of analog-intensive applications, including power management, audio conversion, and sensors. Maxim supplies its diverse product portfolio to a broad base of customers in the communications, computing, industrial, automotive, and consumer-related end markets.

Skyworks Solutions produces semiconductors for wireless handsets and other devices that are used to enable wireless connectivity. Its main products include power amplifiers, filters, switches, and integrated front-end modules that support wireless transmissions. Skyworks' customers are mostly large smartphone manufacturers, but the firm also has a growing presence in nonhandset applications such as wireless routers, medical devices, and automobiles.

Teradyne Inc designs, develops and manufactures automatic test systems for use in semiconductors, wireless products, data storage, and electronic systems in the wireless, automotive, industrial, communications, aerospace, and defense industries. The company operates in four business segments organized by end market: semiconductor test, system test, wireless test, and industrial automation. Teradyne tests help improve and control product quality, measure performance, and increase yields. The firm generates revenue primarily in Taiwan, China, the United States, Japan, and South Korea, but has a presence in countries across the world.

ASE Technology Holding Co Ltd is a semiconductor assembly and testing firm. The company operates in segments: Packaging, Testing, and Electronic Manufacturing services. Of these, packaging services contributes the most revenue. It involves packaging bare semiconductors into completed semiconductors with improved electrical and thermal characteristics. The Testing Segment includes front-end engineering testing, wafer probing, and final testing services. In the EMS segment, the company designs, manufactures, and sells electronic components and telecommunication equipment motherboards. The company is based in Taiwan but garners over half its sales from firms in the United States.

Universal Display Corp researches, develops, and manufactures organic light-emitting diode, or OLED, technologies for use in displays for mobile phones, tablets, televisions, wearables, personal computers, automotive interiors, and the solid-state lighting market. OLED technologies are an alternative to light-emitting diode, or LED, technologies, in the solid-state lighting market, and liquid crystal displays in the flat-panel-display market. A large majority of the firm's revenue is generated in South Korea, with the rest coming from Japan, Taiwan, the United States, and other countries across the world.

Qorvo represents the combined entity of RF Micro Devices and TriQuint Semiconductor, which merged with one another in 2014. The company specializes in radio frequency filters, power amplifiers, and front-end modules used in many of the world's most advanced smartphones. Qorvo also has a suite of products sold into a variety of nonsmartphone end markets, such as wireless base stations, cable TV and networking equipment, and infrastructure and military applications.

Cypress Semiconductor is a provider of advanced embedded systems used in a variety of markets, including industrial, consumer, data communications, and automotive.

ON Semiconductor spun off from Motorola in 1999 and has since become a leading supplier of chips into automotive and industrial markets, with products in analog, discrete, power management, and image sensing. The firm has made several acquisitions in the past few years to solidify share in its key markets. The largest of these was the 2016 purchase of Fairchild Semiconductor for $2.4 billion, which greatly increased the firm's strength in the discrete chip market.

IPG Photonics is a vertically integrated developer and manufacturer of high-performance fiber lasers, fiber amplifiers, and diode lasers, which are used in diverse applications in the manufacturing, automotive, industrial, aerospace, semiconductor, and consumer end markets. A large majority of the firm's revenue is derived from materials processing applications for fiber lasers, including cutting and welding, marking and engraving, and micro-processing. Roughly a third of the firm's revenue is generated in China, with the rest coming from North America, Europe, Japan, Australia, and other countries across the world.

Monolithic Power Systems designs power solutions for a variety of end markets, including industrial, automotive, computing, storage, communications infrastructure, and consumer products. The firm designs switches, converters, lighting, sensors, and control-integrated circuits.

Entegris Inc Billerica, Massachusetts-based company is a leading specialty electronic materials provider for the global microelectronics and other high-tech industries. The company reportable segments include Specialty Chemicals and Engineered Materials (SCEM), Microcontamination Control (MC) and Advanced Materials Handling (AMH). It generates maximum revenue from the Microcontamination Control (MC) segment. Geographically, it has a presence in Taiwan, North America, South Korea, Japan, China, Europe, and Southeast Asia of which North America generates maximum revenue.

Mellanox Technologies Ltd is engaged in the development, manufacturing, marketing and sales of end-to-end Ethernet and InfiniBand intelligent interconnect solutions and services for servers, storage, and hyper-converged infrastructure. The company offers integrated circuits, adapter cards, switch systems, cables, modules, software, services, and accessories. The company supplies its products mainly to the storage and communications infrastructure equipment vendors. The company operates its business mainly in United States, Europe, China, Japan, India, Taiwan and Australia.

Cree Inc is a United States-based company which is involved in the manufacturing of wide bandgap semiconductor products for power and radio-frequency (RF) applications, lighting-class light-emitting diode (LED) products, and lighting products. It operates in two reportable segments: Wolfspeed and LED products. The Wolfspeed segment's products consist of silicon carbide and gallium nitride materials, power devices and RF devices based on silicon and wide bandgap semiconductor materials. The LED products segment, which is the key revenue driver, consist of LED chips and LED components. Geographically, the company conducts business in the United States, China, Europe, and other areas.

Taiwan-based United Microelectronics, the world's second- largest foundry in terms of market share, went public as an American depositary receipt in the United States in 2000. The firm manufactures semiconductors for chipmakers such as AMD and Xilinx. However, the company has consistently lagged Taiwan Semiconductor in terms of market share and operating efficiency. UMC also holds several types of investments in other tech firms, which have provided it with incremental income in recent years.

Silicon Laboratories Inc is a leading provider of silicon, software and system solutions for the Internet of Things, Internet infrastructure, industrial control, consumer and automotive markets.

Cabot Microelectronics Corp is a supplier of polishing slurries and polishing pads used in the manufacturing of advanced integrated circuit devices within the semiconductor industry. The company's products assist in the production of advanced IC devices, by helping customers produce smaller, faster, and more complex IC devices with fewer defects. Cabot's products are predominately geared towards the process of flattening layers of materials that are deposited upon silicon wafers in the production of ICs. Slightly less than half of the company's revenue is derived from foundry customers that provide contract manufacturing services for producers of logic devices.

SolarEdge Technologies Inc together with its subsidiaries designs develops and sells direct current (DC) optimized inverter systems for solar photovoltaic (PV) installations. The company system consists of power optimizers, inverters, and cloud-based monitoring platform and addresses a broad range of solar market segments, from residential solar installations to commercial and small utility‑scale solar installations. The company sells its products directly to solar installers, engineering, procurement, and construction firms and indirectly to solar installers through distributors and electrical equipment wholesalers.

Cirrus Logic Inc is a provider of integrated circuits for audio and voice signal processing applications. The firm's products are organized into two streams: portable audio products, and non-portable audio and other products. These products include analog and mixed-signal components targeting mobile devices, smart homes, and applications in the automotive, energy, and industrial markets. Roughly half of the firm's revenue is generated in China, with the rest coming from the United States, Europe, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and countries across the world.