半導體設備製造商之新產品行銷策略研究

Abstract

半導體產業發展至今約有半世紀之久，該產業之生命周期已由創新階段經歷差異化階段至目前的成本競爭階段。 因此每家半導體商都在思索另一個創新 、差異性的新產品行銷策略，以避免其被商品化的危機且而勝出其他主要競爭者。本論文經由文獻探討找到最適當的策略構面分析架構，並以應用材料公司為個案分析深入探討，來了解應用材料公司如何因應今後激烈的競爭環境，使其能持續成為世界第一的半導體設備供應商。 應用材料公司是全球前五百大公司之一，也是全球最大的晶圓設備供應商，應用材料公司宣佈推出Process Module製程模組策略，做為協助半導體廠商生產下個世代晶片的重要方法。應用材料自五年前開始推廣製程模組概念，為製程設備帶來「即裝即用」的革命性突破，讓客戶製造晶片時，享有更高的工作效能及更快的上市時間，誠為半導體產業發展的一大進步。 應用材料總裁丹•梅登（Dan Maydan）博士表示：「應用材料在銅和低介電材料、奈米元件及300mm設備市場的優勢地位，讓我們得以領導業界，將製程模組列為下一波的發展重心。過去幾年□，我們的「設備及製程整合中心」（EPIC）已經與多家重要客戶密切合作，並於130奈米製程技術上達成98%以上的測試晶片良率，證明製程模組具效率及可行性。」丹•梅登博士同時表示：「我們已經證明製程模組能將晶片間的差異減少五成，讓客戶得以調整製造流程，在最高良率下生產最高效能的晶片。為進一步實現我們的製程模組觀念，應用材料已投入大量資源來發展新設施、製程控制技術與獨立作業的製程設備，以擴大應用材料在這方面的領導地位。」 應用材料的製程模組技術將晶片製造流程區分為多個「建構方塊」（building block），即所謂製程模組，是由多套單獨系統組成，合作無間的製程單元。晶圓進入此單元後，會接受自動的製程處理，且保證可達事先指定規格。應用材料特別將製程設備及多種創新的量測及檢視技術整合在一起，製程管理則是由模組的製程控制技術負責，讓資訊在不同系統間流動，並對製程處理順序做最佳化的安排，以取得品質最好、生產力最高、且成本最低的結果。 由於一個晶片世代已縮短至兩年以內，尤其當新技術不斷推出，如銅晶片製程，如何提昇新產品製造良率，快速在市場獲利，為目前晶片製造商的一大挑戰。特別是300mm晶圓世代即將到來，需要新設備及晶圓廠，在晶圓廠興建完成或是安裝設備之前，應用材料製程模組可先行處理客戶的300mm銅晶圓，確定結果是否符合預期，同時可處理最有可能出現的元件問題。 對晶片製造商來說，製程模組的概念具有極大的潛在經濟效益，可加速新晶圓廠進入量產，並提早上市。由於300mm新晶圓廠的興建成本已接近20億美元，廠房若能提前數星期或數月完成，等於節省了可觀的成本，高價產品隨之可更早進入市場，提高了潛在獲利能力。若廠商自行整合製程，即有可能耽誤寶貴時間，錯過對時間極為敏感的市場，這是很大的風險；反之，針對重要的晶片結構，例如雙嵌刻銅導線，廠商若能購買事先整合的製程模組，就可省下寶貴的時間及成本。 以往市場的競爭環境，規模較大的廠商往往具備更容易成功的條件，如今已進化成市場反應迅速才能免於被淘汰的命運。因此應用材料的製程模組策略，必定成為其能否在未來十年繼續主宰半導體設備市場的重大里程碑。

The life cycle of the whole semiconductor industry has been running through innovation stage, differentiation stage to current cost stage since the semiconductor was introduced a half century ago. Every semiconductor manufacturer is thinking the marketing strategy to be more innovative and differentiated to be avoid the crisis of being commoditized as well as outperform its competitors. This study is to take Applied Materials as a case study to evaluate its important milestone- launch Process Module Products, will be a successful marketing strategy or not in Wafer Fab Equipment Industry. Applied Materials, the largest supplier of products and services to the global semiconductor industry, is one of the world's leading information infrastructure providers. Applied Materials announced its Process Module(TM) strategy, a key approach to enabling next-generation semiconductor manufacturing. Pioneered by Applied Materials over the last five years, the Process Module concept represents a major leap forward for the industry, providing customers with a revolutionary ``plug and play'' approach with significant performance and time-to-market advantages for building an entire structure on a chip. Shipments to multiple customer sites worldwide for several types of modules are expected to begin this year. ''Applied Materials' leadership in copper/low (kappa) materials, nanometer device shrinks and 300mm positions us to lead the industry's next paradigm shift to Process Modules,'' said Dr. Dan Maydan, president of Applied Materials. ''Extensive work with key customers at our Equipment and Process Integration Center (EPIC) over the past several years has proven the viability and effectiveness of this approach where we have achieved test chip yields greater than 98 percent at the 130 nanometer technology node. We have demonstrated that our Process Module units can reduce chip-to-chip variability by 50 percent -- enabling customers to optimize their manufacturing flow to maximize yields of their highest performance chips,'' stated Dr. Maydan. ''To further enable our Process Module capability, Applied Materials has invested significant resources in developing new facilities, process control technology and stand-alone systems that will extend our leadership in this approach.'' Applied Materials Process Module approach segments the semiconductor manufacturing process into separate building blocks. Each of these blocks, or Process Modules, consists of several individual systems that work together as a single, well-coordinated unit. Wafers fed through a module are automatically processed to a specified, guaranteed level of performance. To accomplish this, Applied Materials has integrated its systems with a broad range of innovative metrology and inspection.