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                             الترجمة للغة العربية المتميزة                                                                                                                                                                                              
      .6 TSMC, the World’s First Dedicated Semiconductor
Foundry
Almost at the same time when Japan surpassed the US to dominate the
global semiconductor industry and Korea took the place of Japan in the
memory chip market, a Taiwanese company was creating a new business
mode in in the semiconductor industry. TSMC made full use of
the cheap labor force in East Asia and invented a new foundry model
in the industrial chain.
In 1985, 54-year-old Morris Chang left the US after 30 years of
high-ranking positions in several well-known US semiconductor companies.
He returned to Taiwan to take charge of of industrial and technological
developments. Two years later, with the support of the
Taiwanese government, he founded TSMC in Hsinchu Science and
Industrial Park as the world’s first dedicated independent semiconductor
foundry. In this model, TSMC would only be manufacturing
devices for other companies but would not be designing them. Thus it
would never compete directly in the market and could scale its production
capacity to a customer’s needs.
TSMC set the example and standard for pure-play semiconductor
foundries in a period when firms increasingly saw value in outsourcing
their manufacturing capacity to Asia. After TSMC, a new and more
efficient labor division mode in the semiconductor industrial chain
came into being, and new dedicated foundries started to spring up.
This new model promoted specialization in the industry and contributed
to further prosperity in the semiconductor industry.
Before leaving the US, Chang spent 25 years at Texas Instruments
where he rose up the ranks to become the group’s Vice President. He
also spent two years at General Instrument Corporation as President
and Chief Operating Officer. He was born in Ningbo, Zhejiang (mainland
China’s east coast area) in 1931, and spent his youth in various
142 DECIPHERING CHINA’S MICROCHIP INDUSTRY
places during the Japanese invasion and the Chinese civil war. His family
moved to Hong Kong in 1948 and he moved to the United States
to attend Harvard University the following year. He transferred to MIT
one year later and received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in
mechanical engineering there.
He joined Texas Instruments in 1958 when the company was rapidly
rising in its field. After three years, he became manager of the
engineering section and was later appointed as Vice President responsible
for the company’s worldwide semiconductor business.
Originally, microelectronic devices were manufactured by companies
that both designed and produced the devices. It was necessary
because the manufacturing process involved tweaking parameters, precise
understanding of the process and the occasional need to redesign.
Therefore, these manufacturers were involved in both the research and
development of the manufacturing process and the research and development
of microcircuit design. However, as manufacturing techniques
developed, microelectronic devices became more standardized. This
TSMC headquarters in Hsinchu, Taiwan.
Stars on the Stage of Microchips 143
allowed design to be split from manufacture. Seeing this separation
trend between manufacture and design, Chang saw value in the foundry
model which could optimize productivity. Hence, he founded TSMC
to concentrate on fabricating and testing the physical microelectronic
products.
For the newly-started foundry factory to start mass production,
Chang needed expert personnel, manufacturing technology and contract
orders from leading fabless firms in the world. For that purpose,
he enlisted the help of the president of General Electric’s semiconductor
department, and successfully landed an order from Intel after
acquiring all the relevant technology licensing. An episode happened
during this first cooperation between Intel and TSMC and it spoke
well of Chang’s unwavering determination and the factory’s trustworthiness.
Andrew Grove, CEO of Intel, wanted to step back from the
deal after his inspection of TSMC revealed certain disqualifications in
the manufacturing process. Chang, however, provided guarantee of
TSMC’s reliability by diminishing the flaws within weeks and won
back Grove’s heart.
Gradually, leading fabless semiconductor companies around the
world realized that TSMC was the fastest among Japanese, Singaporean
and Korean foundry companies to deliver orders. The Taiwanese company
thus began to manufacture for most of the leading microchip
design companies, including Qualcomm, Nvidia, AMD, Media Tek,
Marvell, Intel, Texas Instruments and Broadcom. TSMC’s rise to the
leading position in the field was a combined result of capitalizing on
the impending industrial transformation and constant upgrading of its
manufacturing and management capacities. TMSC’s success was just a
chapter in the big story of the industrial transformation that took place
in the latter half of the 20th century, but it heralded the beginning of
wafer foundry as an independent and substantial industrial chain in the
semiconductor industry.