A new YouTube doc from Asianometry ... seems to be quite comprehensive, but ignores audio devices like Philips TDA and SAA series.
"Lost" is a subjective term. Maybe Europe decided they did not want to go into the semiconductor market -- too many resources required, and too much effort??? Even US, the semiconductor "leader", outsources most of it fab work to Asia. Cheaper labor there.
"Lost" is a subjective term. Maybe Europe decided they did not want to go into the semiconductor market -- too many resources required, and too much effort??? Even US, the semiconductor "leader", outsources most of it fab work to Asia. Cheaper labor there.
There's stil manufacturing going on en Europe. I know of fabs in Scotland (ON Semi or Diodes Inc; formerly National Semi) and Germany. Philips (now NXP) is probably fab-less. I bet they rely on TSMC (Taiwan), but don't know that for a fact.
Tom
Tom
Not sure about who fabbed for these guys, but ...
Wolfson is/was Scottish. They were acquired by Crystal, who continue to manuf some WM devices.
Also from UK: XMOS ... and the biggie ... ARM.
More here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Semiconductor_companies_of_the_United_Kingdom
And:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Semiconductor_companies
As I mentioned, National Semiconductor had a fab in Greenok, Scotland. They (or TI after the acquisition) sold it off. I think it was Diodes Inc (maybe ON Semi) who bought it. I used to work with guys there. I also know of a TI fab in Germany. I was tangentially involved in transferring a process there because one chip I worked on happened to be a really good test case for that process.
Does ARM have a fab? I sorta doubt it. It's my impression that they licence their code for manufacturing by others. But I'm not an expert on such things.
Tom
Does ARM have a fab? I sorta doubt it. It's my impression that they licence their code for manufacturing by others. But I'm not an expert on such things.
Tom
STM is expanding manufacturing in Sicily : https://www.semiconductor-today.com/news_items/2022/oct/st-051022.shtml
Btw @philipsmarantz Wolfson was acquired by Cirrus, who had previously acquired Crystal
Btw @philipsmarantz Wolfson was acquired by Cirrus, who had previously acquired Crystal
One can see some of the reasons why US would want to outsource fab and Euro wants nothing to do with semi's ...
NIMBY
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S004896972206973X
https://www.theguardian.com/environ...ductor-silicon-chips-carbon-footprint-climate
NIMBY
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S004896972206973X
https://www.theguardian.com/environ...ductor-silicon-chips-carbon-footprint-climate