Integrated device manufacturer

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An integrated device manufacturer (IDM) is a semiconductor company which designs, manufactures, and sells integrated circuit (IC) products. As a classification, IDM is often used to differentiate between a company which handles semiconductor manufacturing in-house, and a fabless semiconductor company, which outsources production to a third-party. Due to the dynamic nature of the semiconductor industry, the term IDM has become less accurate than when it was coined.

[edit] Fabless operations

The terms fabless (fabrication-less), foundry, and IDM are now used to describe the role a company has in a business relationship. For example, Motorola owns and operates fabrication facilities (fab) where it manufactures many chip product lines, as a traditional IDM would. Yet it is known to contract with merchant foundries for other products, as would fabless companies.

[edit] Manufacturers

Many electronic manufacturing companies engage in business that would qualify them as an IDM: including but not limited to Cypress Semiconductor, Fujitsu, Hitachi, IBM, IDT, Intel, LSI Corporation, Matsushita, Mitsubishi, Freescale, NEC, Philips, NXP, Samsung, STMicroelectronics, Infineon, Sony, National Semiconductor, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba.