Semiconductor commercialisation: from tape-out to a repeatable order

Semiconductor buying is a qualification process, not a sales conversation. A fab, an OEM or a distributor tests the part, tests the company behind it, and only then places an order. Commercialisation work means engineering that path deliberately: pick the accounts, get designed in, and survive the supplier checks that follow.

Most chip and equipment startups treat the evaluation as the finish line. It is the start. Between a passed evaluation and a purchase order sit the design win, the approved vendor list, first article inspection and, for anyone shipping hardware, a factory acceptance test.

The guides below follow that order, from the first design-in conversation to the paperwork that lets a buyer place volume orders.

1. 01Your chip passed the evaluation. So why is nobody designing it in?An evaluation board on an engineer's desk is not a deal in progress. It is an option someone bought cheap. The gap between eval and design win is where chip sta
2. 02Congratulations on your design win. Now you only have two years to wait for the money.A design win is a serious commercial commitment, but it is not yet revenue. On NRE, design-in economics, and what your first corporate customer should actually
3. 03OEM sales: the design win is not the revenueYour part disappears inside their product, and your revenue arrives on their schedule. What the design-in window is, what OEMs really evaluate, and how to avoid
4. 04Industrial B2B marketing when your buyer is a factory, not a feedIndustrial B2B marketing is not software marketing with longer cycles. What it is, how manufacturers actually get leads, and what a real industrial marketing st
5. 05Supplier qualification: the part of the sale that happens after they say yesThe buyer agreed in March. The first order came in September. Nothing went wrong. Here is what happens in those six months, and how to get through it faster.
6. 06The approved vendor list: why being better is not enoughYour product won the technical evaluation. The order still did not come. Here is how the approved vendor list actually works, and how small suppliers get on one
7. 07First article inspection: the paperwork that decides if you can actually make the partYou made one perfect part by hand. The FAI is where the customer asks you to prove the process made it, not the heroics. Here is what the inspection actually ch
8. 08The factory acceptance test: the exam you get to write yourselfThe FAT is the last gate before your machine ships. Startups treat it as a formality. Industrial buyers treat it as the moment of truth. Write the exam yourself