Since its inception, the semicon-ductor industry has successfully delivered a continuous cost reduction per device or device function, historically averaging about 35% per year. As a result, transistor cost (per million transistors), memory cost (per megabit), and computing cost (per MIPS) have steadily declined over the past 45 years, while on average the industry has enjoyed revenue growth with good profits. This phenomenal achievement, driven by Moore's Law, has been possible because of manufacturing cost reductions through shrinking device linewidths, improving yields, larger wafer sizes, and increasing productivity and manufacturing efficiencies. Costs have been reduced despite the rising tool and fab costs for the increasingly complex wafer-fabrication processes.
展开▼
