some questions about semi conductor industry

[hatter]

I am not as clued into the semiconductor's industry as some the other folks here are. But I am trying to understand the cost and price structure that the industry has. Specifically I am looking for the information on:

-- what is the average price of a 300mm silicon wafer?

-- Does the fab process affect the price of wafer? Also, does the cost of wafer include cost of the fab process or is that charged separately?

-- what is the industry standard? Price by wafer or price per usable chips?

-- What is the average yields in the first six months of the new process? What is the usual rate of improvement?

-- How much time does it take to fab a CPU once the design has been finalized?

-- what sort of margins are there for fabs? how much does it take to create a 100mm mobile SoC like Apple A6... a ballpark figure?

I tried looking for this info on the web but there is not much available. I wonder why. may be some folks here can pitch in.

 

[3dcgi]

I'll answer a few questions.

-- what is the average price of a 300mm silicon wafer? Don't know for sure but multiple thousands of dollars.

-- Does the fab process affect the price of wafer? Also, does the cost of wafer include cost of the fab process or is that charged separately? Yes process matters with older processes being cheaper and you buy the wafer from the fab so its included.

-- what is the industry standard? Price by wafer or price per usable chips? Both are used, but mature processes are usually by wafer.

-- What is the average yields in the first six months of the new process? What is the usual rate of improvement? I doubt you'll find an accurate answer in a public forum.

-- How much time does it take to fab a CPU once the design has been finalized? Around 1.5 to 2 months from base layer tape out.

-- what sort of margins are there for fabs? how much does it take to create a 100mm mobile SoC like Apple A6... a ballpark figure? For fab margins you should look at TSMC's balance sheet.

 

[Tahir2]

Samsung fabbed the A6 - using their 32nm HKMG process.

The reason why information on fabrication costs and margins is not freely available is because they are trade secrets.

Here is an article on a reason "spat" waged online for the whole world to see between NVIDIA and TSMC. TSMC did the wise thing and ignored it publically