For Korean fabless companies, ASICLAND has proven to be a reliable facilitator as the only Korean VCA  

TSMC, taking up more than half the global foundry market share, has only 8 design houses around the world, called as its official Value Chain Aggregator (VCA). In Korea, ASICLAND Co., LTD is the only official VCA of TSMC since 2019.

In the semiconductor industry, the business scope is professionally divided in detail. Communication for collaboration between each field is essential due to the fact that design companies (Fabless) are only able to design semiconductors with its technology and consignment producers (Foundry) are only able to manufacture with its production lines.

Fablesses bigger than a certain level can directly communicate with foundries and produce semiconductors, but otherwise most of fabless companies need to go through additional process for chip production. Fabless’s technology such as IP must be drawn up on Graphic Design System in compliance with Foundry’s design rules. The needs for design house have emerged here.

Design house of old days was treated just as a partial outsourcer which designs drawing for foundry process according to order from fabless, now they are changing game. ASICLAND, the most pioneering design house in Korea, have been throwing themselves into LEVEL-0(Chip specification consultation) and play a larger role as a ‘total solution company’ by providing a turn-key service including test, package, mass production qualification.

Jong-min LEE, CEO of ASICLAND, said through the interview at the headquarter of ASICLAND in Suwon-si on 24th May, “Fabless, which has core technology, requires very little people. It can be more productive for experts like us to design and optimize semiconductor features and requirements” and added that “As a result of this optimal role-allocation, fabless can get the most out of their core technology and have better control of its human resources; on the other hand, we, as design house, may gain more revenue.”

Following being named TSMC’s VCA in 2019, ASICLAND has been on a growth track in collaboration with fabless companies in the domestic market. Participating in the design process of AI semiconductor 'SAPEON’ for data centers, which started at SKT in 2020, would be one of the representative cases. ASICLAND has given full supports for design and mass-production of this chip by utilizing SKT’s AI processor of core parts and thus has won an additional government project ‘Development of AI Accelerator for Media Quality Enhancement’ with ‘SAPEON’ Inc, now as a name of company.

CEO LEE added, “Even if fabless companies have brilliant ideas and differentiated technology, it’s still challenging to make them integrated into a physical product, due to human and material limitations” and he emphasized that “ASICLAND’s strength is in offering a total solution with TSMC, the world’s top foundry, and by doing so customers can be provided the best ASIC in points of quality and supply.”

As getting more customers rapidly, sales increased from 23.5 billion won ($19 million) in 2020 to 45 billion won ($37 million) last year, and it aims to sell over 80 billion ($65 million) this year. This is an ambitious target, considering that TSMC's lines are very busy and tight due to global semiconductor shortages. The company's ambition is to become a global corporation through overseas expansion, including the U.S., after forming a stable sales structure in the domestic market.

He stated with confidence that “We are expanding our workforce pool through M&A to meet the rapid growth of sales. The number of employees has increased to 140 by making acquisitions of two promising companies: WhizMind last year, TOPASIC this year. We will continue to expand our professional team.”