ABSTRACT
At the modern core of G. E. Moore's law and the economic benefits thereof is a different way of thinking about semiconductor scaling; the historical path that Moore's law has followed is becoming difficult to realize. The semiconductor industry had both an economic incentive and a technological/engineering incentive to increase the sizes of wafers in order to accommodate the larger chip sizes. Foundries can only operate at 100% capacity if the demand is high, and various economic factors influence consumer demand; a chain reaction emanates from under-utilized foundry operations down to wafer production. Many foundries and semiconductor wafer manufacturers have to change their approach to be more viable for all parties along the supply line. Mergers and outsourcing have become commonplace for most large semiconductor manufacturers, depending on the demand for primarily personal computing, mobile phones and mobile computers or tablets. Historic semiconductor manufacturing data show that total manufacturing cost also increases with wafer sizes.
