The changing value-chain of system design

One of the topics touched on at the SEMI Industry Strategy Symposium (ISS) Europe 2017 was the way that the electronics and semiconductor value-chain has been changing over the last few years. The traditional value-chain has very simply been:

• wafer fabrication (foundry) followed by assembly and test

• PCB and module assembly

• final OEM assembly

However, as systems have become ever more complicated and integrated, the lines between these distinct roles have blurred considerably. The growing importance of innovations on a system level are enabling entirely new applications while further increasing system complexity. One of forces behind this complexity is the additional functionality constantly being built onto silicon. And with complete systems-in-package (SIPs), the semiconductor value chain is moving much closer to the end module. This can deliver greater system efficiency, performance improvement and reliability. 

This thought process is clearly mirrored in packaging trends, as basic IC encapsulation moves ever closer to wafer-level packaging. Functional packaging then increasingly takes over the role of system-level assembly.