Photo by Jeremy Thomas on Unsplash
The technology roadmap for the semiconductor device level scaling is updated yearly. However, implementation demands several years of continuous effort. It is also why only a few semiconductor manufacturing firms can follow the technology scaling roadmap accurately.
For semiconductor design and manufacturing companies to stay ahead of the scaling curve demands years of planning. It ranges from a specific node to scale, the solution to focus on, new types of devices and working with the equipment industry to support next-gen solutions. On top of all this, whether there is a market that demands building new technology node capacity.
Resources: Scaling technology demands many capital-intensive design and manufacturing resources.
Execution: Utilizing resources to drive perfect execution is key to enabling next-gen scaling solutions.
Planning such a large set of technology to business points demands time and resources, something not all semiconductor design and manufacturing companies can afford to do. It also limits the number of semiconductor companies that work toward advanced nodes.
Gathering the required resources and executing them without any issues is also a big task for manufacturers who can afford to do so. There are already several examples of this based on 5nm, 3nm, and 2nm, for which several experienced companies struggle to come up with scaling solutions on time.
Scaling technology is for sure about how resources execute the strategy. Eventually, execution also relies on how the market and product fit is and might be the driver of why not all companies focus on products that demand advanced next-gen scaling solutions and thus have a different market than the rest.
Based on the historical technology roadmap, the market for new scaled solutions will always exist. However, the question remains on how to fit the product into the market. Thus without a clear path toward the type of products that will eventually find use in the advanced nodes, it is not easy to adopt a strategy to scale semiconductor technology.
Market: Focusing on the need to find the fit for the new scaling solutions is also a crucial part of the process.
Product: Companies have to focus on new products that correctly uses scaled semiconductor technology.
Market-product fit becomes more vital for costly, complex, and advanced nodes. The primary reason is the area of application, which is very limited. It implies that the focus needs to be on niche products, which brings a new set of challenges for even the most experienced and resourceful companies.
The race for scaling next-gen technology is not going to end soon. The number of players participating will decrease, and those who can balance the resource and execution strategy along with a perfect product-market fit will eventually find success.
