功率積體電路設計公司產品組合策略 - 以E公司為例

Abstract

國內積體電路 (IC) 設計產業在成熟的垂直分工架構下蓬勃發展，由早期之數位IC設計產業延伸至類比IC設計產業，功率IC包含於類比IC設計產業，為國內類比IC設計公司主要之開發產品。

隨著電子產品的功能多工及整合化，且個別功能電路所需的電源可能不同，因此需要電源轉換之管理系統將單一輸入電源或電池電源轉換成各功能電路所需之電壓及電流；又由於電子產品小型化及節能趨勢，功率元件與控制IC的整合與搭配性趨於重要，甚至整合於單一晶片或封裝中。另一方面，在全球節能減碳的潮流下，功率元件與控制IC的特性搭配決定電源轉換之轉換效率，也就是節能的效果，因此國內功率IC設計業者在近幾年來均投入資源於功率元件及控制IC技術及產品之開發。

雖然功率元件及控制IC在應用上為搭配性產品，但其特性，設計核心及營運型態有所差異，甚至略為衝突。本研究將探討功率元件、控制IC在同一事業體下，產品組合的策略，以個案公司及選定之國內同業，藉由Michael E. Porter (1985) 的競爭策略分析產品之定位策略，並加上Michael E. Porter的五力分析模型，了解企業在功率半導體產業之產品競爭能力，最後就產品組合策略分析個案公司在不同產品策略下的優、劣勢。

由本研究之結果可得知，個案公司雖然成立時間相較於國內同業晚，但可藉由選定搭配其核心之產品組合，彌補個案公司在經濟規模較小造成成本上之劣勢，另外在需要長時間經營之品牌價值上，個案公司可藉由與下游客戶已建立之實質策略聯盟及自身之垂直整合能力，在產品差異化上取得優勢，提升及穩固在市場上的地位。

The Integrated Circuit (IC) design industry has been flourishing developed in Taiwan due to the maturity of semiconductor foundry architecture. Not only the digital IC design industry has been well developed, but also the analog IC industry. The power ICs, which are categorized in analog IC, are the major products of analog IC design companies in Taiwan.

More and more functions are integrated into electronic products. Each function circuit may require different supplied voltage or current, therefore electronic products need power converting solutions to provide various power from a single input voltage supply or battery. Furthermore, the size of electronic products tend to be minimized for easy carry, the matching of power device and relative control IC is more important and sometime they are packaged together. The matching of power device and control IC is also a key factor of improving power converting efficiency which is requested by green power concept. The Taiwan based power IC design companies therefore invest resources in to both power device and control IC technologies and products development in recent years.

Although the power device and control IC are complementary products in power application, the operation characteristics, business models and design core are different, in some points, they are even conflict. In this work, product combination of power device and control IC under a single business unit was studied. A case study was applied here by Michael E. Porter’s (1985) competitive strategy and five forces analysis to understand the case company’s position in Taiwan power semiconduction industry. Different product portfolio strategies were also studied to indentify the advantage and disadvantage of the case company.

It can be obtained in this study that the case company can has advantage by choosing right product portfolio which matches to her core competence although the case company was established later than other competitors in Taiwan which results in less economic scale currently. Regarding to the relative low brand equity, the case company can differentiate her products by the existing strategic partnership with customers and the vertical integration core capability to achieve strong position in Taiwan power IC market.