Semiconductor industry and market

Learn the structure and basic terms of the semiconductor industry — foundry, fabless, IDM and Moore's law — through multiple-choice questions.

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Semiconductor industry and market: key points

In addition to IDMs, which handle everything from design to manufacturing and sales in-house, the semiconductor industry has seen a growing division of labor between fabless companies, which own no fabs and focus on design, and foundries, which specialize in contract manufacturing.

Moore's law, which says that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit doubles at regular intervals, has long served as a benchmark for the industry's technology development.

All Semiconductor industry and market questions (50)

  1. Which correctly describes a 'foundry' in the semiconductor industry?
  2. Which correctly describes a 'fabless' company?
  3. Which best describes 'Moore's law'?
  4. Which correctly describes companies called OSATs?
  5. In the semiconductor market, what is the phenomenon called in which booms and busts repeat periodically due to the balance of supply and demand?
  6. Which type of semiconductor company handles everything from design through front-end and back-end manufacturing to sales in-house?
  7. Which correctly describes Dennard scaling?
  8. Which appropriately describes generation names (node names) of advanced processes such as the '3 nm generation'?
  9. What is the scheme called in which a foundry puts designs from several customers on one wafer (one mask set) for prototyping?
  10. Which appropriately describes investment in advanced semiconductor fabs?
  11. What is an LSI called that integrates functions a system needs, such as a CPU, GPU, memory controller and communications, on a single chip?
  12. What is an LSI called that is custom-designed for a specific application or customer?
  13. Which category of semiconductor products, such as diodes, single transistors and power MOSFETs, performs a single function on its own?
  14. Which correctly distinguishes the 'front end' and 'back end' of semiconductor manufacturing?
  15. What is the direction called that raises value not only by increasing integration through scaling but also by combining diverse functions such as sensors, power, analog and advanced packaging?
  16. Which is an appropriate example of a field that has strongly boosted semiconductor demand in recent years?
  17. Which appropriately describes cutting-edge EUV exposure tools?
  18. Which is an appropriate main reason governments are providing large-scale support to the semiconductor industry?
  19. Which appropriately describes the role scaling has played in semiconductor cost?
  20. Which industry body develops standards for DRAM such as DDR?
  21. Which region is known for an especially heavy concentration of contract (foundry) manufacturing of advanced logic semiconductors?
  22. Which is commonly said to characterize the memory market?
  23. Which is an appropriate example of products designed by fabless companies?
  24. Which is an appropriate field in which Japan's semiconductor-related industry is said to have global strength?
  25. Which is an appropriate example of an issue facing the semiconductor industry in recent years?
  26. Which is closest to the approximate size of the global semiconductor market (annual revenue) in recent years?
  27. Which is an appropriate reason the division of labor between foundries and fabless companies spread?
  28. Which is an appropriate reason the back end (packaging) has become more important in recent years?
  29. Which is an appropriate reason the amount of semiconductors in each car is increasing?
  30. What is a company called whose business model is licensing design assets (IP) such as CPUs to other companies for fees?
  31. Because semiconductors are basic components essential to all kinds of products, what metaphor has been used for them in Japan?
  32. In the memory semiconductor market, which two products account for most of the revenue?
  33. Which company, headquartered in Taiwan, holds the largest share of the world's foundry (contract chip manufacturing) market?
  34. In the chip shortage of around 2020-2021, why was automobile production heavily affected?
  35. Which small computer, embedded in appliances, cars and other equipment to control them, integrates a CPU, memory and I/O circuits on one chip?
  36. What is it called when large cloud providers and the like design their own chips specialized for AI processing and other tasks for their data centers and have them made by foundries?
  37. Which law, enacted in the US in 2022, provides large subsidies and more for domestic semiconductor manufacturing and research and development?
  38. Which Japanese company, founded in 2022, aims to mass-produce 2 nm-generation leading-edge logic chips in Chitose, Hokkaido?
  39. Fabs place particular emphasis on keeping tool utilization high. Which is an appropriate reason?
  40. Which organization, made up of major semiconductor makers worldwide, publishes statistics and forecasts of semiconductor market shipments?
  41. Which international industry association, whose members include makers of semiconductor manufacturing equipment and materials, develops industry standards and holds the SEMICON exhibitions?
  42. Which correctly describes chips made on so-called mature (legacy) processes older than the 28 nm generation?
  43. Which set correctly names major semiconductor manufacturing equipment makers?
  44. Which business model keeps fab investment down by making some products in its own fabs while outsourcing leading-edge products and the like to foundries?
  45. Which correctly describes the book-to-bill (BB) ratio, used as an indicator of the semiconductor equipment market?
  46. In semiconductor and other manufacturing, what is the tendency called for the cost per unit to fall by a fixed percentage each time cumulative production doubles?
  47. For leading-edge logic chips, which is closest to the typical time from starting a wafer on the production line to completing the front-end process?
  48. What is it called when an equipment maker arranges to procure an equivalent product from another supplier as well, in case supply of a particular chip stops?
  49. When a chipmaker announces the end of life (EOL) of a product, what is it called when equipment makers using it buy, one last time, the quantity they will need for future maintenance and production?
  50. Which is the main reason the price per processed wafer has risen sharply as leading-edge process generations advance?

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