This chapter first carries out a general review of the major factors affecting the growth of the United States semiconductor industry, and then proceeds to consider its more specific aspects. This has been done by dividing the material into a number of sections, each reviewing a particular characteristic of the industry's development. One important aspect, exhibiting strong distinguishing features when compared with parallel developments in Europe and Japan, is the way in which individual manufacturing companies have developed within the industry. Further sections in this chapter deal with structural, technical, social and geographical aspects of the industry. The object of this approach is to highlight factors peculiar to the US semiconductor industry in order to facilitate a comparison with the parallel growth of the semiconductor industry taking place in other countries. Finally, in view of the outstanding success of Texas Instruments Inc as the major producer of semiconductor devices over three decades, a brief historical survey of this company is included, in order to highlight possible factors contributing to its success.

Inspec keywords: semiconductor industry

Other keywords: structural aspect; industry development; Europe; United States semiconductor industry; geographical aspect; social aspect; technical aspect; Japan; Texas Instruments Inc

Subjects: Project and production engineering