Integrated device manufacturer

An integrated device manufacturer (IDM) is a semiconductor company which designs, manufactures, and sells integrated circuit (IC) products. As a classification, IDM is often used to differentiate between a company which handles semiconductor manufacturing in-house, and a fabless semiconductor company, which outsources production to a third-party. Due to the dynamic nature of the semiconductor industry, the term IDM has become less accurate than when it was coined.

Fabless operations

The terms fabless (fabrication-less), foundry, and IDM are now used to describe the role a company has in a business relationship. For example, Motorola owns and operates fabrication facilities (fab) where it manufactures many chip product lines, as a traditional IDM would. Yet it is known to contract with merchant foundries for other products, as would fabless companies.

Manufacturers

Many electronic manufacturing companies engage in business that would qualify them as an IDM: including but not limited to Cypress Semiconductor, Fujitsu, Hitachi, IBM, IDT, Intersil, Intel, LSI Corporation, Matsushita, Mitsubishi, Freescale, NEC, Philips, NXP, Samsung, STMicroelectronics, Infineon, Renesas, Sony, National Semiconductor, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba.

Reading

• Understanding fabless IC technology By Jeorge S. Hurtarte, Evert A. Wolsheimer, Lisa M. Tafoya 1.4.1 Integrated device manufacturer Page 8