There are over 1300 fabless Integrated Circuit companies worldwide, and over 20\% of the worldwide semiconductor revenue now comes from fabless companies. While the available infrastructure makes it relatively easy to launch a fabless IC company these days, the success rate of new start-ups remains relatively low.
<br><br>

After providing a brief background and status of the semiconductor industry and the fabless model, this seminar will offer a discussion of the major reasons for the low success rate of fabless start-ups. Then the presentation will provide detailed suggestions in all phases of IC implementation for increasing the company's success probability. One or more case studies/examples will be included. Key success factors are technical, marketing and business considerations such as technology selection, product specification, product positioning, cost optimization, and understanding the customer value chain. Included will be a discussion of design methodologies, process prototyping, production ramp, reliability qualification, customer support, and the like.  The workshop will also have a brief discussion of challenges in scaling up the company beyond the first few successful I.C. products.

<br><br>

A panel discussion is being planned to follow the formal presentation.

<br><br>
The author's recently published book, "Fabless Semiconductor Implementation", McGraw Hill, will serve as a reference text.