Total research and development spending by semiconductor companies grew to more than $30 billion in 2005, an increase of nearly 10 percent from 2004.

That was one of the findings of a new release from market analyst firm IC Insights, which derived the data from its Strategic Reviews Online database.

Overall R&D spending by all semiconductor companies worldwide grew at an annual average rate of 9 percent between 2001 and 2005.  The top 30 largest fabless semiconductor suppliers increased their R&D expenditures at double that rate during the first half of the current decade, IC Insights said in its report.

Among the top 25 integrated device manufacturers (IDMs), IC Insights’ analysis showed Intel’s R&D expenditures were $22.1 billion between 2001 and 2005, about $10 billion more than any other semiconductor company. Intel’s R&D spending accounted for 26 percent of total R&D money spent by the top 25 IDMs that manufacture products and break out semiconductor financial results, along with research and development costs.

While Intel’s R&D expenditures dominated the semiconductor industry, the company’s five-year average rate of spending, based on a percentage of sales, was just 14 percent. In the past five years, the top 25 IC manufacturers averaged 16 percent of sales for R&D expenditures. The R&D spending level for the top 30 fabless suppliers was 17 percent of sales based on the analysis from the Strategic Reviews Online database.

Five-year R&D results among the top 25 IDMs revealed that Samsung spent $12.0 billion or 20 percent of its of 5-year sales. Texas Instruments spent $9.0 billion or 17 percent of sales.  STMicroelectronics spent $6.4 billion or 17 percent of sales.  Infineon spent $6.3 billion or 19 percent of sales. Freescale spent $5.2 billion 20 percent of sales.

Five-year R&D spending among the top 30 fabless suppliers included Qualcomm at $3.1 billion (15 percent of 5-year sales); Broadcom at $2.4 billion (28 percent of sales); Nvidia at $1.3 billion (14 percent of sales); Xilinx at $1.3 billion (19 percent of sales), 8% of group total; and Marvell at $1.0 billion (23 percent of sales).

IC Insights’ analysis also showed that silicon foundries consistently spend a lower percentage of sales on R&D compared to IDMs and major fabless customers. However, this is to be expected since foundries do not develop their own products, the company said in a statement.

During the 2001 to 2005 period, foundry leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) invested a total of $1.8 billion, or 6 percent of sales, on R&D. Among other top foundries, United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) in Taiwan spent $1.1 billion in the past five years on R&D, or 9.0 percent of sales, while Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) in China paid out just $236 million, or 9 percent of sales, and Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd. in Singapore invested $539 million in R&D, or 14 percent of sales, between 2001 and 2005.