Singapore semiconductor industry commits over S$500m to R&D as global chip race intensifies

Semiconductor equipment manufacturer NexGen Wafer Systems has similarly benefited from access to shared infrastructure.

Its CEO Cheung Ting Kwan said building all the facilities the company requires itself would mean investing in its own clean room and other specialised equipment.

“If we do it ourselves, this becomes quite prohibitive, expensive for a small- and medium-sized company like us,” he said.

FROM TECHNOLOGY TO CUSTOMERS

But access to infrastructure and talent solves only part of the problem.

For Singapore semiconductor companies, another obstacle is finding enough customers to turn specialised technologies into sustainable businesses.

Advanced Micro Foundry (AMF), a Singapore company working in silicon photonics, was acquired by multinational chipmaker GlobalFoundries last year.

Finding customers for niche technologies was a challenge, said AMF co-founder Patrick Lo.

“We like to build the fab infrastructure, but want it to be fully utilised,” said Mr Lo, who is now a senior fellow of technology development and advanced photonics at GlobalFoundries.

“That full utilisation will be absolutely coming from the application side. This is something I like Singapore as a whole, actually, to have more designers come up, more product developers to leverage.”

It is a challenge some companies are also grappling with as they try to translate breakthroughs into commercial products.

“Maybe people get a lot of funding, but what’s after?” Mr Chua said. “If I develop the technology to what it is, and I cannot commercialise it, then I think as a company we’ve failed.”