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Section 16. IC Economic Issues

Minimizing costs is the primary driving force in the IC manufacturing industry. Advances in technology are needed to satisfy the requirements of leading-edge electronic systems. However, when an IC producer is confronted with the choice of using the most advanced technology or keeping costs under control, the decision almost always leans toward minimizing costs. This section covers several trends relating to the cost of designing and manufacturing ICs, such as R&D costs, IC fabrication facility costs, wafer costs, defect density and yield, and packaging costs.