Fabless Companies Need Fab Links, Say Conference Speakers

By David Manners -- 5/2/2006
Electronics Weekly

Fabless companies will become increasingly disadvantaged in the wireless telecommunications business as a close correlation between IC design and fab becomes essential, said speakers at the International Electronics Forum in Budapest this week.

“It is not possible to separate the design and the semiconductor side. Sub-100nm processing nodes yield for post layout design optimization and order of magnitude stringent DFM [design for manufacturing] rules,” said Professor Yrjo Nuevo, technology advisor at Nokia Mobile Phones. “This means diluting the value of fabless players’ designs due to the increasing immaturity of their IPs before post layout optimization.”