Besides Japan’s and Korea’s governmental support for their national
semiconductor industries, the Taiwanese government’s role in TSMC’s
success was also instrumental. In the early 1970s, Taiwan began to purchase
technology from Radio Corporation of America (RCA) for its
144 DECIPHERING CHINA’S MICROCHIP INDUSTRY
own research and development program. After some re-innovated
technology was developed in the Electronic Research Center of Taiwan
Industry Institution, the government began to coordinate the collaboration
of TSMC and another company called UMC (United
Microelectronics Corporation), to whom it handed over the technology.
The Taiwanese government participated actively in several of its
leading semiconductor companies until the late 1980s. It was only
when they began to see profitability did the government feel confident
to leave the matters to the hands of able entrepreneurs.
In 1997 when TSMC was listed in the New York Stock Exchange,
the company saw an annual revenue of US$1.3 billion and a net profit
of US$535 million. In 2009, when Chang returned to the position of
TSMC’s CEO after he stepped back in 2005, the company started to
invest heavily in the microelectronic manufacturing technique. It then
pioneered the 40 nanometer and 28 nanometer techniques, making
itself a counterpart of Samsung and Intel in IC manufacturing
technology.
As the symbol of Taiwan’s high-tech industry and the epitome of
Taiwan’s economic development, TSMC became the world’s largest
wafer foundry company in 2013 with a 46% global market share and
a US$1.99 billion revenue.
Significant events in the development history of semiconductors.
Year Events
1947 William Shockley, Walter Brattain and John Bardeen invented the world’s first pointcontact
transistor.
1948 Bell Labs developed the technique to produce single crystalline germanium.
1949 The California-based IC manufacturer International Rectifier launched the first
commercially available semiconductor components in history.
Claude Shannon (1916–2001), “the father of information theory”, published the first
article centered on the programming of a computer for playing chess and using
the computer to solve the game.
1950 Bipolar junction transistor (BJT) was commercially available for a series of consumer
products.
1951 The world’s first commercial computer was delivered to the US Census Bureau.
Stars on the Stage of Microchips 145
Year Events
1952 One year after its emergence, Texas Instruments started to focus on semiconductor
business.
Motorola started its research and development laboratory in Phoenix, Arizona, to
research new solid-state technology on commercial high-power germanium-based
transistor.
IBM launched IBM 701 Electronic Data Processing Machine, its first commercial
scientific computer.
1953 Motorola received its first semiconductor technology patent which involved its newly
developed, lower-cost transistors used to assist wireless communication signal
reception and automobile audio power transformation.
1954 Texas Instruments and Industrial Development Engineering Associates (I.D.E.A.)
worked together to design and manufacture the first transistor radio.
Texas Instruments created the first workable silicon transistor.
1955 The first fully transistorized computer which used discrete transitions instead of vacuum
tubes was developed.
Bell Labs developed photoresist material.
William Shockley left Bell Labs to work on new silicon-based semiconductor devices
and opened the first semiconductor company, Shockley Semiconductor
Laboratory one year later in Mountain View, California. His attempts to
commercialize a new transistor design led to California’s “Silicon Valley” becoming
a hotbed of electronics innovation.
1956 General Motors launched the first solid-state silicon switch.
1957 Transistors were used in America’s first satellite, Explorer 1.
The traitorous eight led by Robert Noyce left Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory
and founded Fairchild Semiconductor under the sponsorship of Sherman
Fairchild, founder of Fairchild Aircraft and Fairchild Camera.
The sales volume of the semiconductor industry exceeded US$100 million for the
first time.
Seymour Cray (1925–1996) developed the first fully transistorized supercomputer.
1958 Jack Kilby invented the first germanium integrated circuit.
The US Air Force started to apply semiconductor technology to design its transcontinental
ballistic missile.
1959 US National Semiconductor was established in Danbury, Connecticut.
Robert Noyce invented a silicon version of the integrated circuit and Jean Hoerni
developed the associated fabrication technique called planar process which made
the IC truly practical in the manufacturing industry.
(Continued)
146 DECIPHERING CHINA’S MICROCHIP INDUSTRY
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Chapter                                            الترجمة للغة العربية المتميزة                                                                                          
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