Semiconductor companies in Singapore

Singapore offers a business environment with respect for intellectual property, integrity, productivity, and reliability. The human capital that Singapore provides is a ready pool of global talent, achieved through actively encouraging globally qualified personnel to work here. We welcome talents from all over the world to live, work, study, and visit Singapore. Today, Singapore has built up a base of high quality engineering talent to cater to investors' needs. Our electronics sector is also constantly upgrading its workforce and anticipating future demand. In 2013, the electronics sector accounted for 31% of Singapore's total private sector R&D expenditure. This investment will further complement and strengthen the manufacturing and HQ activities here.

Recognising that talent is an important driver of economic growth, we have put in place a comprehensive set of capability development schemes to address the electronics industry's talent needs. In 2010, EDB and the Nanyang Technological University ("NTU") officially opened VIRTUS, a new IC Design Centre of Excellence. VIRTUS trains postgraduate students in analogue and mixed signal IC design, and develops key technologies in new growth areas such as low power management and energy harvesting. In addition, EDB has been actively co-funding scholarships for undergraduate and postgraduate electronics studies in specialisations such as wafer fabrication and IC design.

R&D is another differentiating competency for high tech industries. Singapore has invested heavily in this respect. The government raised the R&D budget for 2011-2015 by 20% from the previous 5-year period, with the aim of making Singapore one of the most research-intensive countries in the world. Electronics is one of the major contributors to this goal.

Singapore’s well-developed electronics R&D capabilities range from component-level design and process R&D to system level product design, firmware development, and industrial design. Publicly funded centres like the Institute of Microelectronics (“IME”) and university research centres like VIRTUS IC Design Centre of Excellence and the Photonics Institute at NTU are pushing the boundaries of technology through their cutting edge research.

This strong R&D culture has encouraged companies to establish research centres in Singapore to develop next generation components and products.

Many opportunities are present in this increasingly mobile, connected, and sensory world. Solutions need to be developed and tested rapidly to harness these opportunities in different end-markets. In Singapore, platforms are being built within the public and private sectors to enable players across different industries to gather and co-develop solutions for a networked society.