Electronic Systems

TEARDOWN, REVERSE ENGINEERING AND REVERSE COSTING: UNDERSTANDING WHAT IS AT STAKE IN THE SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY

As the semiconductor market continues to grow in size and complexity, it is vital to clearly understand which company is supplying which device to which customer. What are a specific design’s technical choices, and what are the production costs and their potential developments? Amid the emergence of a diversified supply chain and multiple new technologies moving to volume production, Yole Group has the vital information you need – from customer choices to your competitors’ technical and production costs – at the system, module and component levels.

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THE FULL SEMICONDUCTOR PROCESS FROM DESIGN TO SUPPLY CHAIN

From consumer to automotive, medical to defense and aerospace, industrial to telecommunications – every electronic system you can think of now contains semiconductors. Innovation, new features and an ever-changing bill of materials are inextricably linked to the choice of semiconductor components. 

But system makers are not only choosing the semiconductors that allow their products to run. They also need to define the background architecture, the PCB and substrates needed to support it, the assembly process and the supply chain. Doing this provides two benefits. First, they avoid potential issues. Second, they get access to cost-adapted new technologies to support their own innovation.

In addition to these trends, more and more system makers in the consumer (especially smartphones), automotive and datacenter industries are designing their own chips and using specific dedicated supply chains to make their designs a reality. 

At Yole Group, we help you make sense of this multi-faceted and recombining industry.

Our vision

SYSTEM TEARDOWNS FOR CONSUMER AND AUTOMOTIVE

The only way to get access to such a level of detail – and thus understand supply chain and Bill of Materials (BOM) developments in the semiconductor industry – is to perform a detailed teardown of the systems.

This deep dive into innovative devices and semiconductor technologies reveals technical choices and changes, and the associated reverse costing. At Yole Group, we are therefore able to evaluate the impact of choices on the BOM.

We tear down innovative automotive systems for the analysis of the latest innovations in such areas as electrification, ADAS, infotainment, and LIDAR.

We give you access to a large spectrum of smartphones across the world by analyzing their makers’ winning design choices. We track and describe the latest functionalities of new home automation and smart home assistant systems, tablets, wearables and much more.

This is how Yole Group provides you with unique added value. Every year, our analysts tear into products to help you understand design wins and BOM for more than 140 consumer products and 70 automotive systems.

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INSIGHTS INTO PARTS, COSTING AND FUNCTIONALITY

Our Teardown Tracks include detailed parts lists, block diagrams, assembly processes, x-rays and high-resolution photographs. They deliver detailed insights into component parts and costs, as well as chip system functionality.

Using our collective intelligence accross Yole Group, powered by our presence in all major industrial semiconductor clusters worldwide, we hunt down end products or modules that are using the latest technical innovations. We then tear them down to reveal what is inside and define the Bill of Materials (BOM), supply chain and production costs for the most inventive devices. We are unique in that we can support your analysis of a competitor’s winning design and cost structure, customer supply chain choices, and BOM impacts – all at the system and component levels.

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SEMICONDUCTOR CONTENT AND COSTING IS KING

Over 30% of a car’s value is attributable to semiconductor and electronic content. New functionalities in consumer systems are 100% related to microelectronic components. Gaining an understanding of systems and modules’ electronic content is therefore the only way to truly benchmark the industry – from semiconductor component, PCB and packaging substrate suppliers all the way to system makers.

In addition to the huge industrial impact of the semiconductor industry across all markets and products, the costs related to semiconductor content are also a key factor to track. The slightest increase or decrease affects the complete supply chain’s bottom line. System teardowns – associated with component reverse engineering and reverse costing – are the correlated analysis that enable us to understand the evolution of the semiconductor industry.

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Key Drivers

AUTOMOTIVE TEARDOWN: SEMICONDUCTOR CONTENT TO REPRESENT 40% OF THE COSTS IN THE CAR OF THE FUTURE

 

The automotive industry is speeding ahead towards electric vehicles and autonomous driving. As a result, new cars will see more and more of their costs – and value – arise from semiconductor content.

Naturally, this means that the industry will increasingly rely on the semiconductor supply chain.

Tracking inverter and converter architecture and winning design choices, new ADAS features, LiDAR technology implementation – in short, knowing which electronic brain autonomous vehicles are using – is the only way for you to stay informed of the automotive industry’s future.

That’s at the high end, at entry level and anywhere else that cars are driving innovation.

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ADDING NEW FEATURES TO SMARTPHONES TO INCREASE MARKET SHARE

The smartphone industry has reached a plateau in terms of worldwide unit sales. Competition among makers is strong, and the only way to differentiate is to provide new features that attract new buyers. These new functions are primarily correlated to technical and supply chain choices – i.e., semiconductor components. 5G implementation is all about new technologies for the RF front-end (RFFE) modules and devices. New Application Programing Interface (API) architecture and processing power is driving enhanced user experience. The increased quality and performance of image sensors is enabling better photos and videos. Understanding what comes next is all about knowing what new semiconductor technologies make it into the latest smartphones.