Semiconductor industry

Semiconductor device fabrication
MOSFET scaling (process nodes)
020 μm – 1968 010 μm – 1971 006 μm – 1974 003 μm – 1977  1.5 μm – 1981 001 μm – 1984 800 nm – 1987 600 nm – 1990 350 nm – 1993 250 nm – 1996 180 nm – 1999 130 nm – 2001 090 nm – 2003 065 nm – 2005 045 nm – 2007 032 nm – 2009 028 nm – 2010 022 nm – 2012 014 nm – 2014 010 nm – 2016 007 nm – 2018 005 nm – 2020 003 nm – 2022
Future 002 nm ~ 2025
Half-nodes Density CMOS Device (multi-gate) Moore's law Transistor count Semiconductor Industry Nanoelectronics
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The semiconductor industry is the aggregate of companies engaged in the design and fabrication of semiconductors and semiconductor devices, such as transistors and integrated circuits. Its roots can be traced to the invention of the transistor by Shockley, Brattain, and Bardeen at Bell Labs in 1948.^[1][2] Bell Labs licensed the technology for $25,000,^[3] and soon many companies, including Motorola (1952),^[4] Schockley Semiconductor (1955), Sylvania, Centralab, Fairchild Semiconductor and Texas Instruments were making transistors. In 1958 Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce of Fairchild independently invented the Integrated Circuit, a method of producing multiple transistors on a single "chip" of Semiconductor material. This kicked off a number of rapid advances in fabrication technology leading to the exponential growth in semiconductor device production, known as Moore's law that has persisted over the past six or so decades. The industry's annual semiconductor sales revenue has since grown to over $481 billion, as of 2018.^[5]

In 2010, the semiconductor industry had the highest intensity of Research & Development in the EU and ranked second after Biotechnology in the EU, United States and Japan combined.^[6]

The semiconductor industry is in turn the driving force behind the wider electronics industry,^[7] with annual power electronics sales of £135 billion ($216 billion) as of 2011,^[8] annual consumer electronics sales expected to reach $2.9 trillion by 2020,^[9] tech industry sales expected to reach $5 trillion in 2019,^[10] and e-commerce with over $29 trillion in 2017.^[11] In 2019, 32.4% of the semiconductor market segment was for networks and communications devices.^[12]

In 2021, the sales of semiconductors reached a record $555.9 billion, up 26.2 percent, with sales in China reaching $192.5 billion, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association. A record 1.15 trillion semiconductor units were shipped in the calendar year.^[13] The semiconductor industry is projected to reach $726.73 billion by 2027.^[14]