半導體產業工程鏈合作模式之比較研究

Abstract

半導體製程進入深次微米世代後，IC設計的挑戰愈來愈多，製造與設計的關係愈來愈緊密，愈來愈不可分。廠商間的合作也愈來越多，甚至形成聯盟。工程鏈合作的概念在半導體產業逐漸形成，也越來越重要。目前半導體產業工程鏈的研究著重於製造面，而工程鏈實務面的管理也是著重於製造的相關問題。然而隨著半導體製程能力的演進及IC設計挑戰的與日增加，半導體產業工程鏈的研究也應擴及IC設計相關議題。本研究從IC設計面來探討半導體產業的工程鏈合作模式。 本研究想要探討的問題為：「半導體業工程鏈在製造與設計間如何運作？」。首先探索工程鏈間廠商在PDK、IP及IC設計服務三議題上如何合作，並籍由了解廠商間實際合作的成果，以微觀的角度提供實務面及帶一點工程面的觀察，來帶出廠商間合作現況的線索，然後再比較工程鏈與工程鏈間在PDK、IP及IC設計服務三議題上的異同。在探索PDK、IP及IC設計服務的同時，也帶入可數位化產品經濟特性的概念來看廠商間對於套牢、轉換成本、分版的作法。 本研究發現，三條工程鏈在PDK的佈局上有高階，中階，低階製程及製程種類上的不同。在IP的合作上，其主要供應商的廠商類別組成也有很大的差異，可分為三類：單一晶圓代工廠、晶圓代工廠加上IC設計服務廠商、及EDA廠商。在IC設計服務廠商間合作聯盟型態也有分單一廠商或是多廠商的合作聯盟形態，而其廠商間合作模式有互補式股權合作及代理式非股權合作二類。大致上而言，工程鏈內廠商間的競合關係是合作大於競爭，而工程鏈與工程鏈間則是呈現競爭的關係。

There are more and more collaboration between IC manufacture and IC design, especially in the deep sub-micron era. The engineering chain collaboration is more and more important. However, most of the passed reaches about engineering chain focused on IC manufacture and few of them focused on IC design. This study focuses on IC design related issues to explore the collaboration models in the engineering chain of semiconductor industry. There are three target engineering chains in this study: TSMC engineering chain, UMC engineering chain and Chartered-IBM engineering chain. Firstly, this study explores the inter-firm collaborations about the PDK, IP and IC design service within the above three engineering chains. The actual collaboration results of each engineering chain are presented, too. Secondly, this study compares the difference among these three engineering chains about PDK, IP and IC design service respectively. Finally, the lock-in, switching cost and versioning are discussed. This study finds that these three engineering chains have different strategies in PDK, IP and IC design service. The PDK of each engineering chain has different characteristics in both process technology node and process type. For hard/firm IP, there are three combinations of different types of major IP suppliers: foundry only, foundry plus design service companies, and EDA tool companies. The alliances for IC design service business of these three engineering chains are different, too. Overall, in the above fields, cooperation happens more often than competition within the same engineering chain; competition always happens among different engineering chains.