About Us
Company Introduction
Silicon Federation International (SFI) is an investment company specializing in nurturing new generation of fabless IC design companies. As the name suggests, it is also a federation for semiconductor-related companies. To date, the federation consists of over 10 member companies invested by SFI and founded by overseas returnees with many years working experience in various IC fields. These investees are top-notch in his or her area of specialization. Together, they have technical capabilities that complement each other. Collectively, they possess a set of universal building blocks based on which chips (System-On-Chips) that satisfy a broad spectrum of applications could be practically constructed. As such, they could collaborate and take on substantial product development projects that otherwise would not have been feasible. The existing products of the member companies comprise of display driver IC, imager IC, video and audio processing IC, analog and digital conversion IC, RF transceiver IC, memory IC such as EEPROM, CPU and MCU IC etc.
The concept of forming a federation originated from Dr Ko Ping Keung and it began to take shape in the later part of 2004. The 1st IC Federation Conference was conducted in October 2004. Dr Ko is a well-known expert in the field of m icroelectronics. He joined UC Berkeley in 1984, and was appointed Vice Chairman of the EECS department and Director of the Berkeley Micro-fabrication Laboratory. In August 1993, he returned to Hong Kong and joined the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) as Dean of Engineering . Since then, Dr. Ko has been actively involved in funding and assisting IC design companies in China. In addition, he has taken on the posts of adjunct professor in both Tsinghua University and Peking University. In 2002, by virtue of his contribution to the development of device models used for IC design, Dr. Ko was granted the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Award in US.
While facing the relatively new IC Industry in China, Dr Ko has developed an idea of bringing together various IC Design Companies to form a federation to take advantage of the strength of critical mass. The collective strength enhances the competitiveness of these fables IC design companies and accelerates their growth. This is not only a whole new business model in this industry but also a continuation of Dr. Ko's efforts to develop China Mainland IC Design Industry. Physically, however, SFI member companies are scattered in Shanghai & Shenzhen due to the different strength in these two cities. To coordinate the activities, the federation center of SFI, Silicon Federation Semiconductor, based in Shanghai , focuses on collaborating with and between federation members on administration, finance, training, backend support and other business related activities such as:
- IP trading
- joint SoC projects and joint marketing/sales
- federation-wide training program
- collective bargaining on packaging, testing and foundry services
The following table shows the principal activities of SFI member companies:
Company |
Focus |
Products/Services |
Applications |
SANGUINE |
Chip Analysis |
Integrated Circuits Analysis, Anatomization and Photography; |
Cost and technology analysis for different chips. |
CHIPHOMER |
Telecoms and Consumer IC design |
ELINK; VoIP Series; OPERANS; Power Management Tech. |
Data Communication, Data Switch, Power Management chip for Cell phone, |
SOURCECORE |
Silicon solutions for HAN, PAN & toy markets |
FM/FSK transceiver; 2.4GHz Bluetooth Transceiver; Power amplifier; PHS transceiver IP |
Wireless digital Data/audio applications used in home or personal area network; |
TERALANE |
Analog and mixed-signal products for consumer electronics applications |
LCD Driver: (CSTN/OLED) IC Design Service |
Cell phone, PDA and Consumer Electronics with LCD Display |
Fremont Micro Devices |
Non-volatile Memory Solutions |
EEPROM OTP |
Code storage; Memory repair; Security ID for Com. |
Advanced Microsystems Technology |
Chip design & technology integration; System on chip design.
|
8 bit, 16 bit, 32 bit MCU chips with microchip, ARM7 and MIPS compatible cores. |
Communication, control applications etc. |
SAGEN |
Memory-based computer architecture |
Protein analysis system, biotech and data analysis solutions |
Biotech |
Inspired Motion Technology |
Technical and logistic Service |
Provide Technical service on wafer/testing/packaging logistic |
|
BEKEN |
RF Transceivers (especially 5.8 G ) |
Cordless phone chips; General purpose RF transceivers; |
Communication |
LITEMAGIC |
Intelligent Lighting Solution |
Outdoor Decorative Lighting; Indoor Lighting Products |
Intelligent decorative lighting with lower power consumption. |
Nolan |
Blue-tooth & other wireless solutions |
stereo headsets, mobile phones, GPS solution |
lifestyle & communication |