The invention of integrated circuit (IC) technology has a profound impact on the global industry and economy. From home appliances to automobiles, airplanes, computers, mobile phones and even artificial satellites, they rely on small chips to operate. Nowadays, artificial intelligence applications have exploded. The industry is marching toward the era of smart IoT, performing a large number of data calculation ICs and playing a key role in it.
Among them, the ITRI played a key role in the development of the semiconductor industry in Taiwan. In 1977, the ITRI’s “Integrated Circuit Demonstration Plant” produced Taiwan’s first commercial integrated circuit, and Taiwan’s IC semiconductor industry kicked off. UMC, TSMC, Taiwan masks and other international companies have driven Taiwan’s industrial structure from being labor-intensive to technology-intensive, and have become Taiwan’s first industry with a value of trillion yuan.
Taiwan has two major advantages in the field of semiconductors. First, there is a complete industrial chain. There are many international-level manufacturers from IC design, wafer manufacturing, and packaging and testing. Second, human resources are abundant, and there are many talents in semiconductor related fields.
If Taiwan can continue to grasp the two major advantages and have a clear industrial development orientation, it can at least maintain its technological leadership of five to ten years.
Integrated circuit technology first originated in the United States, and its advantages lie in software design and system planning. Although Asian countries have aggressively advanced in recent years and Asia’s manufacturing capabilities have become disdainfully global, it is estimated that within 10 years, the United States will not waver in terms of its technological leadership in software; The advantage lies in the process technology, so Taiwan must master the technological advantages of the process and strive for innovation. Heterogeneous integration will be the key technology for the next wave of semiconductor development.
The heterogeneous integration concept not only conforms to the semiconductor industry's pursuit of reduced size, but also integrates ICs with different functions through packaging and semiconductor manufacturing processes onto another piece of silicon wafer or other semiconductor material to increase the efficiency of design and development. Breakthrough silicon physics limit, apply silicon material to different fields.
The next generation of memory technology is also an important trend. ITRI has cooperated with domestic semiconductor companies to research and develop magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM). The transmission speed of MRAM is tens of thousands faster than that of general memory and is expected to replace mainstream DRAM. Flash RAM.
Taiwan's semiconductor talents are rich, this is the foundation laid by the industry for more than 40 years. Recently, the country has hired Taiwan's semiconductor talents with high salaries. This is a short-term phenomenon of "emergency coaches". It needs to be considered. Once the local strength and technology are in place, the high salary will be Exist?
In the 60 years since the invention of integrated circuits, emerging technologies continue to advance technology. Taiwan's semiconductor industry chain is complete and human resources are abundant. It can strengthen the development of software and hardware technologies, strengthen the integration of the middle and lower reaches of the industry chain, and shape the environment that attracts talents to stay. The overall competitive advantage ensures that Taiwan continues to stand at the commanding heights of global industry competition.