半導體晶圓代工與IDM之競合關係分析台灣晶圓代工產業之競爭優勢與策略

Abstract

半導體產業發展初始以IDM公司形式存在，從產品設計、生產製造、封裝、測試到行銷等都一手包辦，掌握相關技術；台灣為建立半導體工業，從美國引進積體電路設計及製造技術，以IDM形式開始發展，但在晶圓技術、製造、與產品行銷逐漸遇到瓶頸，長期而言，除了要負擔設計、技術研發成本之外，還要負擔愈來愈高的建廠成本，使得IDM公司經營面臨更大挑戰；伴隨著產業的發展與分工，第一家晶圓代工公司台積電成立，分擔IDM公司產能不足與生產成本，亦讓IC設計公司(Fabless)得以蓬勃發展；因台積電的成功，其他晶圓代工廠相繼成立，由於晶圓廠建造與生產成本，隨著新世代製程技術而急速提高，這驅使IDM公司不得不轉型，將製造生產方面全部或部分委託給專門的晶圓代工廠，轉為Fabless(無晶圓廠)或是Fab-lite(輕晶圓廠)公司，將資金專注於IC設計研發方面，鞏固其專長的領域，得以增強競爭力、並能與競爭力不斷增加的Fabless公司競爭，在發展至45nm製程技術後，IDM轉型速度也加快，著名的例子為AMD在2009年引進阿布達比資金，將晶圓製造分割成為Global Foundry，從事專業晶圓代工公司，AMD本身成為Fabless公司，不久，Global Foundry又合併新加坡Chartered，類似的例子逐一發生，壯大了晶圓代工市場，也增強晶圓代工公司之間的競爭。擁有先進技術的IDM公司為了本身策略與發展，也逐漸涉入晶圓代工領域。 由於PC市場衰退且又沒趕上行動裝置的風潮，Intel面臨了公司成長與獲利衰退的問題，挾帶著半導體先進製程技術，積極尋找帶領公司成長的事業，2013年拉攏了台積電客戶Altera，正式揮軍製晶圓代工市場；另一方面，是系統公司也是IDM的Samsung自2010年以來，替Apple從事晶圓代工服務，但隨著雙方在專利的互訴，Apple亟欲「去三星化」下，Samsung除了積極尋找其他客戶來填補產能，也寄望壯大晶圓代工版圖，以支援其龐大企業發展。這兩大IDM公司，一個擁有世界最先進製程，另一個在手機、記憶體、面板等市場都位居龍頭地位，在面臨如此強敵揮軍到晶圓代工市場，台灣晶圓代工公司，尤其是台積電有何因應之道？ 本研究發現在台積電為了維持晶圓代工的領先地位，除了研發費用逐年提高，在面臨先進製程設計和生產成本急速攀升下，也積極組成台積大聯盟(Grand Alliance)，結合客戶、矽智財、EDA(電子設計自動化工具)、設計服務等夥伴的力量，來共同對抗Samsung與Intel在晶圓代工的競爭，並與IDM公司維持合作關係；站在不與客戶競爭、積極服務客戶的優勢上，由單純的晶圓製造到需要扮演上、下游整合角色，可滿足客戶需求的專業服務公司，此競爭策略始能長久維持競爭力與發展。

At the early stage, semiconductor industry was presented in the form of IDM. IDM manages product design, manufacturing, packaging, testing and marketing together and own the whole required technologies. In order to build semiconductor industry, Taiwan government supports company to introduce semiconductor design and manufacture technology from USA started from IDM. But it becomes more difficult to operate semiconductor company due to technology, cost and marketing. In addition to do IC design and technology development, IDM encounters more challenge at building high cost factory to catch new generation technology. Along with the industry evolution and subdivision, the first foundry, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), is formed to share the loading and manufacturing cost of IDM. This is not only benefit IDM, but also give a hand to Fabless that can grow rapidly. To see the success of TSMC, more foundries are formed one by one. With the rising cost of constructing factory and manufacturing, more pressure is pushing IDM to do transformation from IDM to Fab-lite or Fabless. They share loading or reply on Foundry capacity to reduce cost, then have resource focus on their specialities in the research and IC design to enhance competitiveness in the market. We can see this transformation is accelerating beyond 45nm technology. The most absorbing example is AMD split in 2009. One is Global Foundry that has Abu Dhabi fund investment, the other is AMD that is transformed to Fabless. Then Global Foundry merged Singapore Charted to become rank 2 Foundry in the world. The similiar case happens gradually. This has Foundry play more important role in the semiconductor market. The competition among Foundries become more severe. It attracts attention of IDM with leading technology to enter Foundry business. As the PC market downturn and not to catch the uptrend of mobile devices, Intel is facing problem of profit decline and growth in the semiconductor market. Intel is trying to be Foundry and actively seek customer to adopt her leading edge technology that wins one of TSMC customers, Altera. By the way, the system house and IDM, Samsung has already provided foundry service to Apple at semiconductor IC components since 2010. But Apple is trying to get rid of Samsung due to litigation of patent violation each other. Samsung is also actively looking for other customers to fill capacity and extend her foundry territory that can support her enterprise enlargement. These two IDM company, one is rank 1 technology and manufacturing leader in the world, the other is biggest company at mobile phone, memory, panels, etc. With two vigorous companies’ competition, how the Foundries in Taiwan to compete, especially TSMC. In order to maintain the leader position at Foundry, it is found that TSMC is increasing investment rapidly at leading edge technology research and building advanced factory to fulfill capacity demand from customers. TSMC aggressively forms “Grand Alliance” that includes customers, intellectual property and design service provider, EDA vendor, etc, to collaborate together. This can be powerful to compete with Intel and Samsung. Based on the strong partner relationship with customers and mutual trust each other, Taiwan Foundry is not only play as manufacturer, but also integrate frontend and backend to serve customer from design to shipment. The important competitive strategy is to have Foundry be transformed from manufacture to service.