砷化鎵晶圓代工廠的發展策略

Abstract

第四代行動通訊LTE與5GHz WiFi 802.11ac的問世，正式宣告成為未來無線上網的新趨勢。消費者對資料傳輸量和傳輸速度的要求愈來愈高，以往3G行動通訊與2.4GHz WiFi 已無法滿足消費者享受高畫質影音服務的需求，無線手持裝置如手機與平板電腦內所使用的通訊元件，其性能更形重要。砷化鎵因其高頻、高效率、低雜訊、低耗電等材料特性上的優勢，非常適合用來製造高性能的通訊元件，因此得以占據無線通訊市場的有利地位。 本研究旨在分析無線通訊之蓬勃發展帶給砷化鎵產業之機會，並探討晶圓代工在整體砷化鎵產業之定位，提供砷化鎵晶圓代工業者之策略發展方向。 矽晶圓代工產業發展較砷化鎵晶圓代工早約十數年，雖產業特性上有其基本之差異，但他山之石，可以攻錯，藉由分析矽晶圓代工產業龍頭台積電的關鍵成功因素，亦可為砷化鎵晶圓代工業者之發展策略提供一些建言。 本研究最後借用管理學大師波特之策略三要素的架構，針對砷化鎵晶圓代工業者，提出幾點建議: 在製程技術上不斷投入研發，維持技術能力的領先地位，提高附加價值; 聚焦在微波通訊技術上的應用，暫時捨棄市況不佳的太陽能電池市場; 整合企業內的各個系統，推動虛擬晶圓廠的概念，讓客戶感受到彷彿在自家的晶圓廠生產般的便利。

The emergence of the 4th generation mobile technology (LTE) and the 5GHz WiFi technology (802.11ac) has elevated the commercial communication standard to a new level. Consumers are no longer satisfied with the existing 3G mobile and 2.4GHz WiFi technologies. The demand of wireless communication for high data rates rapidly increases. With the characteristics of high frequency，high power efficiency，low noise，and low power consumption，GaAs-based devices have dominated the wireless communication market.

This research is exploring how the GaAs industry can be beneficial by the booming wireless market，how a GaAs foundry can position itself in the GaAs industry，and what strategies a GaAs foundry can adopt to prevail.

TSMC，as a pure-play foundry，has been very successful in silicon semiconductor industry. By analyzing and duplicating TSMC's key success factors，a GaAs foundry can shorten its learning curve.

At the end of this research，a few suggestions are made to the GaAs foundries according to the three strategy elements proposed by Michael E. Porter. First of all，a GaAs foundry should maintain its technology competitiveness by throwing in more R&D resources. Secondly，a GaAs foundry should focus on wireless communication market. Put the solar cell market aside as the prospects of which seem to be obscure at the moment. Finally，fit is important because discrete activities often affect one another. Competitive advantage grows out of the entire system of activities. A GaAs foundry should integrate the entire corporate activities to establish infrastructure of a Virtual Fab. The Virtual Fab will strongly enhance the partnership with customers. Customers will obtain the same level of the convenience of having their own in-house fab.