台灣半導體測試業採購測試設備決定因素之研究

Abstract

半導體產業近十多年來，歷經了數次的景氣循環，隨著大環境的改變，整體半導體產業已經逐漸走向微利化的趨勢。半導體業屬於資本密集、技術密集、景氣循環速度快的產業，加上半導體公司之間彼此一直進行激烈的產業競賽，不論是製程研發、良率提升、設備投資等，對各個半導體公司而言都是艱難的挑戰。 半導體測試業屬於整體半導體製造產業供應鏈的下游，主要對其上游的半導體客戶端，提供半導體測試服務，以及提供半導體的測試產能。一直以來，採購測試設備是半導體測試公司最主要的投資，隨著IC產品功能日漸強大、設計日趨複雜，需要的半導體測試設備的功能也必須與日俱進，連帶影響其設備價格日漸昂貴。因為投入巨額的測試設備投資之後，測試公司的設備使用率直接影響半導體測試公司的營運績效、財務規劃、公司獲利甚鉅。因此半導體測試公司如何做好採購半導體測試設備之前的評估作業，讓巨額的設備投資能正確且有效產生效益，就顯得十分的重要。 本研究是探討影響台灣半導體測試業採購測試設備的決策因素，研究過程乃透過對半導體測試業業內專家的訪談，歸納出主要的構面，以及各構面當中的各項主要要素，之後利用層級分析法(AHP)架構為基礎產生的問卷，對台灣半導體測試業的營運製造、設備採購、設備工程人員、行銷業務等相關人員，以及主要的半導體測試設備供應商，做問卷調查，從回收的有效問卷當中，歸納出影響半導體測試業採購測試設備時之的評估準則及要素權重，供日後採購設備前做為參考及評估，使測試公司在進行設備投資時能更具有效益。

關鍵詞：半導體測試設備，AHP層級分析法，決策

Over the past ten years, the semiconductor industry has experienced several business cycles, and the changes in the industry have led the entire semiconductor industry into a meager profit era. It is a capital- and technology-intensive industry with rapidly changing. Semiconductor manufacturers have kept fierce competitions among themselves; hence, these manufacturers have faced many difficult challenges in terms of manufacturing process development, yield rate improvement, and equipment investment. The semiconductor testing sector is in the downstream supply chain of the semiconductor manufacturing industry, and it provides semiconductor testing and deliverability testing services to clients. Purchasing testing equipment has always been the major investment for the semiconductor testing companies. Along with the development and sophistication of IC products, the functions of the semiconductor testing equipment have to be improved, which also bring increases in the purchasing costs for the equipment. Owing to the huge amount of money being spent on purchasing the testing equipment, the utilization rate of the equipment would directly affect the operating performance, financial planning, and profit of the testing companies. Therefore, it is important for those companies to conduct proper assessment before purchasing the equipment to make sure that the purchasing can bring cost saving. The present study attempts to explore the factors that would affect the decision making in purchasing semiconductor testing equipment for the semiconductor testing sector in Taiwan through interviewing the experts in the field. After acquiring the concluding factors obtained from interviews, questionnaires will be distributed to the operating, purchasing, engineering, and marketing staff in the semiconductor testing sector as well as to the suppliers of the testing equipment based on the AHP method. It is hoped that the assessment principles and ratios will be useful in future purchasing.

Key words: Semiconductor testing equipment, Analytic hierarchy process, Decision making