The Future of the Semiconductor Industry

Until recently, many semiconductor companies grew their market share by incorporating multiple features into a single chip. The thought that chips could be designed once and then used in a variety of contexts.  

Chiplet-Based Architectures: The Future of Semiconductor Design

IP reuse is still a focus for the future of the semiconductor industry – with a majority of industry leaders calling it a top concern in our 2023 Perforce State of Semiconductors survey – but now designs have shifted to achieve market growth through customization. Instead of designing single, monolithic chips, the future of semiconductor design relies on chiplets. These are specialized, modular chips that can be combined to create a complex, integrated system-on-chip (SoC). 

These chiplet-based designs are made up of smaller, customizable building blocks. This approach could lead to lighter hardware, lower costs for consumers, and greater sustainability. Some IP suppliers are connecting chiplets with the idea of "soft IP," or IP that organizations can configure based on their specific needs. MIT Technology Review also identified this shift – also known as "multi-die system technology" – as the future of the semiconductor industry.While chiplet-based designs are gaining traction, it will likely be five more years before they are prevalent enough to be considered industry standard. 

Globalization

In addition to shifts in the future of semiconductor design, the industry will become more global. When KPMG asked semiconductor executives if their company plans to expand global hiring, working with more distributed teams across multiple companies, 71 percent said yes.  

Is the Semiconductor Industry Growing? 

The semiconductor industry is growing rapidly. The recent CHIPS and Science Act added more than 200 thousand semiconductor-related jobs in the United States alone. This legislation comes as semiconductors play a bigger role in an expanding rage of products. Semiconductors are even more needed with products like self-driving cars, as well as items that incorporate AI and machine learning. 

According to McKinsey & Company, semiconductors will become a trillion-dollar industry by 2030.  

Though revenues for the semiconductor industry are predicted to decline slightly this year, by 2024 the market is predicted to see an 18 percent annual increase.  

Key Trends for the Future of Semiconductor Production

Several trends are shaping the future of semiconductors. These include new technologies and broadened markets. We are also seeing novel uses of existing technology through 2.5D packaging with chiplets on mature process nodes. 

Broadening Markets 

The use of semiconductors has broadened significantly. Today, semiconductors power everything from smartphones to sensors in self-driving cars. 2023 findings from the MIT Technology Review cited that customers are expecting and demanding more personalization. Companies are responding to this push, with more than half of executives surveyed saying they plan to expand their business's range of "smart" products.  

Emergence of New Vertically Integrated Systems Companies 

Vertically integrated systems companies will also be pushing the demands of semiconductor designs, as non-traditional semiconductor companies produce their own devices and platforms to support their ecosystems. 

Take Apple as an example. In 2022, they released a new M1 processor. Apple developing and owning this patent represents a strong trend for the future of semiconductors: more companies entering the marketplace and increased competition.  

So, why are other systems companies following Apple? 

“Apple is designing more of its own chips to gain greater control over the performance of its devices and differentiate them from rivals.” (Bloomberg) 

By vertically integrating, these companies can benefit from traceability. If you do not have a traceable platform, you are going to run into issues. But if you have an IP management system with traceability — such as Helix IPLM (formerly Methodics IPLM) — you’ll know what you have and where you have it. This helps you accelerate innovation and improve performance. 

Key Challenges for the Future of the Semiconductor Industry 

Today, the biggest challenges facing the semiconductor industry are time to market and cost. Workforce and talent shortages have also recently emerged as a significant obstacle.  

Meet Time-to-Market Demands with IP-Centric Design 

Shifting to an IP-centric design methodology can help you accelerate design and reduce costs by enabling more efficient IP reuse. Find out how by watching 5 Steps to Achieve IP-Centric Design. 

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Time to Market 

Time to market is a major concern in semiconductor design. Our annual Perforce State of Semiconductors survey found that improving time to market is the primary objective for the majority of semiconductor executives. When semiconductors don't meet their designated time to market – which happens in about half of production cases – revenues decrease dramatically.  

Cost 

The cost of manufacturing a semiconductor is high. Experts point to this as the reason why the industry has been dominated by a few companies. Re-spins are especially costly, making it essential for companies to ensure their semiconductors will function ahead of manufacturing and production. 

Talent Shortage 

Changes in the workforce, including pivots to remote work and more global team structures, have heated up companies' competition for talent. Research from Deloitte identified that by 2030, more than one million workers will be needed to fill new positions in semiconductor organizations. While this is a complex issue, companies will find that streamlining workflows, improving collaboration, and working with new, efficiency-driving tools can help ease workforce frustrations.  

These are significant challenges, but they can be reduced by using a traceability-focused platform like Helix IPLM. 

Better Prepare for the Future of the Semiconductor Industry with Helix IPLM 

Here’s how you can solve semiconductor design challenges with Helix IPLM. 

1. Enable Full Traceability 

Without traceability, you’ll lose track of important metadata and which IPs are used where. 

Using a platform like Helix IPLM enables you to keep track of what you’ve built, what’s available, and what can be reused. By getting traceability from requirements to design to verification, you can avoid re-spins and improve communication of requirements change. 

2. Enable IP Reuse 

Because semiconductor designs are so complex, it’s challenging for design teams to manage releases and their dependencies during the design phase. This can lead to missed time-to-market windows. 

Helix IPLM provides a solution by making it easy to identify and reuse IPs. This means you can design an IP once and then reuse it. This accelerates time-to-market and drastically reduces costs. 

3. Maintain a Single Source of Truth 

With acquisitions of other companies or expansions of design teams, it’s more critical than ever to maintain a single source of truth. 

With Helix IPLM, you can federate all your design data and metadata from design silos in your company. This will improve communication across design teams. 

4. Improve Collaboration, Even Security Is Needed

Collaboration is becoming ever more critical in the semiconductor space. Design teams are spread around the world.This adds to the complexity of collaborating on chip design. Due to strict export laws, you’ll need to have strong IP security. 

By using Helix IPLM, global design teams can empower collaboration without sacrificing IP safety. 

Your Platform for the Future of Semiconductors: Helix IPLM 

Helix IPLM is your ideal platform to design the future of semiconductors. Whether your organization is a semiconductor manufacturer or you’re an electronics company just getting into chip design, Helix IPLM is the solution for you. 

That’s why Helix IPLM is trusted by 9 of the 10 top semiconductor companies. 

“Helix IPLM offered a powerful solution by providing us with a collaborative platform to perform IP reuse more efficiently and in a sustainable, scalable way.” -Rick Stawicki, Executive Director, EDA Engineering, Maxim Integrated 

Connect with one of our IP experts today to schedule a live demo, get answers to your questions, and gain access to evaluation resources to see how Helix IPLM can help your organization accelerate chip design by boosting IP reuse and enabling secure collaboration.