Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
Company: Competitor Analysis
Artificial Intelligence Lab, University of Arizona
Dr. Hsinchun Chen
Outline
• Bibliometric Analysis
• Citation Network Analysis
– Assignee-level Analysis
– Inventor-level Analysis
• Technology Topic Analysis
– Topics of TSMC
– Topics in the technology field of 257 of the US Patent Classification
– Topic comparisons between TSMC and Competitors
• Conclusions
2
BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS
The bibliometric analysis reveals the following facts:
•
TSMC has issued 5,193 patents to the USPTO during 2000 and
2012.
•
TSMC has issued a significantly large portion of patents (3,397) in
the technology field of 257, which is Active solid-state devices (e.g.,
transistors, solid-state diodes).
•
Under this technology field, TSMC has issued the sixth most
patents since 2007 among 2,993 assignees.
3
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC)
Assignee
TSMC
Period
2000-2012
# of Patents
5,193
# of Inventors
6,660
• Top 10 technology fields of TSMC (US Patent Classification FirstLevel Categories)
Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Technology Field
257:Active solid-state devices (e.g., transistors, solid-state diodes)
438:Semiconductor device manufacturing: process
430:Radiation imagery chemistry: process, composition, or product thereof
365:Static information storage and retrieval
700:Data processing: generic control systems or specific applications
216:Etching a substrate: processes
716:Data processing: design and analysis of circuit or semiconductor mask
134:Cleaning and liquid contact with solids
361:Electricity: electrical systems and devices
327:Miscellaneous active electrical nonlinear devices, circuits, and systems
Number of Patents*
3,397
2,672
325
262
209
128
122
110
106
105
• Data collection for patents in US Patent Classification of 257
Technology Field
257
Period
2007-2012
# of Patents
59,471
# of Inventors
51,972
# of Assignees**
2,993
# of Countries
52
* A patent can belong to more than one classification category.
** Name variations of assignees were resolved by NLP-based fuzzy string matching. The total number of assignees
has been reduced from 4,517 to 2,993. (See Appendix 1).
4
Numbers of patents between 2000 and 2012
•
•
TSMC issued the largest patents of 512 in 2001. Since then, the company issues
around 450 patents every year.
The trend analysis shows the slight decreases in patenting activities between 2008
and 2011. In particular, there was a big drop in 2009.
5
Top 20 assignees in the technology field of 257
• There are 2,993 assignees between 2007 and 2012.
– During the past five years, TSMC has issued the sixth largest patents
(1,203) to the field of 257.
– 1,365 inventors of TSMC are involved in these patents.
Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Assignee
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
International Business Machines Corporation
Micron Technology, Inc.
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
Infineon Technologies AG
Intel Corporation
Hynix Semiconductor, Inc.
Panasonic Corporation
Texas Instruments Incoporated
NEC Electronics Corporation
Seiko Epson Corporation
Renesas Technology, Corp.
Fujitsu Microelectronics Limited
Sony Corporation
Freescale Semiconductor, Inc.
Renesas Electronics Corportion
Dongbu Electronics Co., Ltd
Dongbu HiTek, Co., Ltd.
Country
KR
US
US
JP
JP
TW
DE
US
KR
JP
US
JP
JP
JP
JP
JP
US
JP
KR
KR
# of Patents
3,162
2,745
2,226
1,744
1,374
1,203
1,200
1,107
944
772
718
664
656
654
606
592
585
498
482
443
Rank
Assignee
Country # of Inventors
1
2
3
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
International Business Machines Corporation
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
KR
US
JP
3,483
2,450
1,410
4
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
TW
1,365
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Infineon Technologies AG
Intel Corporation
Renesas Technology, Corp.
Panasonic Corporation
Micron Technology, Inc.
Texas Instruments Incoporated
Renesas Electronics Corporation
Applied Materials, Inc.
Sony Corporation
Fujitsu Microelectronics Limited
Hynix Semiconductor, Inc.
NEC Electronics Corporation
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
Hitachi, Ltd.
Freescale Semiconductor, Inc.
Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
DE
US
JP
JP
US
US
JP
US
JP
JP
KR
JP
JP
JP
US
JP
1,258
1,054
1,018
884
839
819
814
757
720
713
699
667
633
624
623
525
The numbers of patents between 2007 and 2012
• The numbers of patents of the top 10 assignees are shown.
– TSMC (6th), Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (1st), and IBM (2nd) are
highlighted.
In early 2007, the numbers of
patents between TSMC, IBM,
and Samsung were similar.
However, after the second
quarter of 2008, Samsung and
IBM issued a lot more patents
(around 3 times more) than
TSMC did.
7
CITATION NETWORK ANALYSIS
Assignee-level and inventor-level analyses were conducted.
We observe from citation network analysis that TSMC has been
one of key players in the technology field of 257. The company
seems to be heavily related with IBM and Intel Corporation.
•
TSMC ranked 3rd by PageRank, which is a measure to identify
important nodes in a network. (Google has used PageRank to
identify important web pages on the Web.)
•
TSMC also ranked 3rd by Betweenness Centrality, which identifies
influential nodes in terms of spreading information between other
nodes.
8
Assignee networks by PageRank
2
1
* The citation network was drawn by
PageRank under the US Classification
of 257.
** The top 3 assignees are highlighted,
which are IBM(1st), Samsung
Electronics (2nd), and TSMC (3rd).
*** The thinker and darker in red the
color, the stronger relationship between
assignees.
Cluster 1 in red represents the
relationships between the top 10
assignees. They have stronger
relationships each other than
other assignees. In particular,
TSMC (3rd), Intel Corporation
(6th), and IBM (1st) have strong
relationships in patenting
activities.
Cluster 2 in green represents
another group of assignees that
have strong relationships.
9
Assignee networks by PageRank cont’d
Rank
Assignee
PageRank
1
International Business Machines Corporation
33.319367
2
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
28.264505
3
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
22.982529
4
Micron Technology, Inc.
20.826821
5
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
20.243724
6
Intel Corporation
18.505991
7
Infineon Technologies AG
16.626531
8
Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
14.069179
9
Panasonic Corporation
12.509489
10
Freescale Semiconductor, Inc.
11.840193
11
NEC Electronics Corporation
11.751204
12
Sony Corporation
11.494882
13
STATS ChipPAC, Ltd.
14
Renesas Technology, Corp.
10.622072
15
Cree, Inc.
10.164305
TSMC is the third most important assignee under
US Classification of 257.
IBM and Samsung Electronics are the top 2
assignees in terms of PageRank score.
Although Samsung Electronics has the most
patents under this classification, its impact is
next to that of IBM.
On the contrary, the analysis reveals that TSMC
is ranked 3rd by importance, though it is at 6th by
the total number of patents.
11.10989
10
Assignee networks by Betweenness Centrality
* The citation network was drawn by
betweenness centrality under the US
Classification of 257.
** The top 3 assignees are highlighted,
which are IBM(1st), Samsung
Electronics (2nd), and TSMC (3rd).
*** The thicker and darker in red the
color, the stronger relationship between
assignees.
The cluster in red shows the
relationships between the top 10
assignees. They have stronger
relationships each other than
other assignees. Likewise,
TSMC (3rd), IBM (1st), and Intel
Corporation (5th) have strong
relationships in patenting
activities.
Cree, Inc.(9th) and Sony
Corporation (10th) circled in
green were named on the top 10
list. (They were 12th and 15th in
terms of PageRank.)
11
Assignee networks by Betweenness Centrality cont’d
Rank
Assignee
Betweenness
1
International Business Machines Corporation
395939.64
2
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
295207.83
3
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
211841.53
4
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
177330.19
5
Intel Corporation
150580.73
6
Micron Technology, Inc.
146722.34
7
Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
111323.64
8
Infineon Technologies AG
110178.81
9
Cree, Inc.*
87210.531
10
Sony Corporation*
84321.651
11
NEC Electronics Corporation
78925.762
12
Panasonic Corporation
73943.286
13
Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
63522.442
14
Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., Ltd.
62896.937
15
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
60581.932
TSMC is the third most influential assignee in the
technology field of 257.
IBM and Samsung Electronics are the top 2
assignees in terms of betweenness centrality
score.
Although Samsung Electronics has the most
patents under this classification, its influence on
other inventors is somewhat limited.
On the contrary, the analysis indicates that
TSMC is one of the top 3 leading assignees in
this category.
12
Inventor networks of the US Classification of 257
1
* The citation network was drawn based on the top
100 most important inventors by PageRank.
** Inventors of the top 5 assignees are highlighted,
which are TSMC, Samsung Electronics, IBM,
Toshiba, and Semiconductor Energy Laboratory.
The most important person is Shunpei,
Yamazaki of Semiconductor Energy
Laboratory in Japan.
There are 7 inventors of TSMC on the top
100 inventor list (See Appendix 1 for the top
60 inventors):
• 12th: Chen-Hua, Yu (11.645)
• 27th: Fu-Liang, Yang (8.920)
• 50th: Chenming, Hu (7.451)
• 66th: Andreas, Hase, Thomas, Murphy,
and Matthias, Heschel (6.662)
th
• 77 : Yee-Chia, Yeo (6.112)
2
It seems to look that there are active
relationships (Cluster 1) between TSMC
and IBM. There is an inventor network
(Cluster 2) of Semiconductor Energy
Laboratory.
Inventor networks of US Classification of 257 cont’d
Rank
Assignee
# of Inventors
1
Micron Technology, Inc.
15
2
International Business Machines Corporation
14
3
Intel Corporation
8
4
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc.
7
5
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
7
6
Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
5
7
MEGIC Corporation
4
8
Illumitex, Inc.
4
9
Macronix International Co. Ltd
4
10
STATS ChipPAC, Ltd.
3
11
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
3
12
Infineon Technologies AG
3
13
General Electric Company
2
14
Cree, Inc.
2
15
Tela Innovations, Inc.
2
TSMC has 7 inventors listed on the top 100
inventors by PageRank.
Micron Technology, Inc. and IBM are the top 2
assignees that have the largest number of
inventors on the top 100 list.
Even though Samsung Electronics has the
most largest number of patents in this category, it
has only 1 inventor that is on the top 100 inventor
list.
14
Inventor networks of the technology fiedl of 257
* The citation network was drawn by Betweenness
Centrality. The top 30 inventors are shown.
** Inventors of the top 5 assignees are highlighted,
which are TSMC, Samsung Electronics, IBM,
Toshiba, and Semiconductor Energy Lab.
1
The most important person is Shunpei,
Yamazaki of Semiconductor Energy
Laboratory In Japan.
2
3
4
There are 6 inventors of TSMC on the top
100 inventor list (See Appendix 2 for the top
60 inventors):
• 4th: Chen-Hua, Yu (7412117.24)
• 44th: Fu-Liang, Yang (1157142.58)
• 57th: Wen-Chih, Chiou (1059065.04)
• 76th: Andreas, Hase, Thomas, Murphy,
and Matthias, Heschel (841019)
Cluster 2 mostly consists of inventors of
TSMC. This cluster seems to connect
Cluster 1 (mainly consisting of IBM’s
inventors) and Cluster 3, which is a bridge
to Cluster 4. (See the next slide for Cluster
2 in detail)
Inventor networks of the technology field of 257 cont’d
Inventors of Cluster 4 are mostly from
Semiconductor Energy Lab.
Cluster 2 consisting mostly of TSMC is
bridging Cluster 1 and Cluster 4 through
Cluster 3 which is a mixed network of
inventors.
1. IBM network
2. TSMC network
An enlarged part
3. Mixed network
4: Semiconductor Energy
Lab.
TSMC has weakly connected citation
networks. In contrary, IBM and
Semiconductor Energy Lab have highly
condensed (well formed) inventor networks.
16
Inventor network of the technology field of 257 cont’d
Rank
Assignee
# of Inventors
1
International Business Machines Corporation
17
2
Micron Technology, Inc.
13
3
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
6
4
Intel Corporation
6
5
STATS ChipPAC, Ltd.
4
6
Illumitex, Inc.
4
7
LG Electronics, Inc.
3
8
LG Innotek Co., Ltd.
3
9
Macronix International Co. Ltd
2
10
Infineon Technologies AG
2
11
Freescale Semiconductor, Inc,
2
12
Cree, Inc.
2
13
Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
2
14
Siliconware Precision Industries, Co. Ltd.
2
15
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
2
TSMC has 6 inventors listed on the top 100
inventors by Betweenness Centrality.
IBM and Micron Technology, Inc. are the top 2
assignees that have the largest number of
inventors on the top 100 list.
Even though Samsung Electronics has the most
largest number of patents in this category, it has
only 2 inventors that are on the top 100 inventor
list.
17
Findings from citation network analysis
• In terms of a simple measure - the number of patents, TSMC
was ranked 6th. However, when measuring quality of patents
by network metrics of PageRank and Betweenness Centrality,
we observe that TSMC has issued higher quality (important
and influential) patents than other competitors such as Micron
Technology, Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, and
Semiconductor Energy Laboratory.
• In particular, Chen-Hua, Yu is a key inventor of TSMC.
– Chen-Hua, Yu was ranked 4th and 12th in terms of betweenness
centrality and PageRank respectively.
• We also observe that IBM and Semiconductor Energy Lab.
have significantly well formed inventors networks.
18
TECHNOLOGY TOPIC ANALYSIS
Topic analyses reveal that TSMC has mostly invested in the
following three topics:
• semiconductor substrate/gate electrode (2000~2001),
• semiconductor manufacturing/semiconductor wafer (2006-2007),
and
• semiconductor device/drain region (around 2011-2012)
TSMC has similar technology topics with Samsung Electronics, IBM,
and Micron Technology.
•
Japanese companies such as Toshiba and Semiconductor
Energy Lab. Have their unique technology topics.
19
Topic Analysis on patents of TSMC
No. of Patents
* The horizontal axis represents the time period, and
the vertical axis shows the number of patents.
** The bigger circle, the more patents.
*** The top 2 most popular terms are shown per cluster.
**** Clusters are represented as follows:
the most popular term/the second most popular
term (# of patent in popular year/total # of patents)
**** For example, a topic of ‘semiconductor device/drain
region (57/536)’ marked by a red star is related with
536 patents in total, and this topic was peaked around
2011 with 57 patents. Likewise, ‘semiconductor
manufacturing/semiconductor wafer (103/903)’ marked
by a blue star means that there are 903 patents
associated with this topic and it was popular around
2005~2006 with 103 of patents.
22 major topics were identified. 5 topics were
popular in 2011. (See Slide 20)
Year
•
We observe from the topic analysis that before 2007 TSMC invested a wider range of
technology topics (15 topics), since then, the company has narrowed down (7~8
topics) its technology fields.
20
Topic Analysis on patents of TSMC cont’d
No. of Patents
* The horizontal axis represents the time period, and
the vertical axis shows the number of patents.
** The bigger circle, the more patents.
*** The top 2 most popular terms are shown per cluster.
**** Clusters are represented as follows:
the most popular term/the second most popular
term (# of patent in popular year/total # of patents)
**** For example, a topic of ‘semiconductor device/drain
region (57/536)’ marked by a red star is related with
536 patents in total, and this topic was peaked around
2011 with 57 patents. Likewise, ‘semiconductor
manufacturing/semiconductor wafer (103/903)’ marked
by a blue star means that there are 903 patents
associated with this topic and it was popular around
2005~2006 with 103 of patents.
Year
•
•
There has been the big three technology topics: semiconductor substrate/gate
electrode (2000~2001), semiconductor manufacturing/semiconductor wafer (20062007), and semiconductor device/drain region (around 2011-2012).
Patents relating to semiconductor device/drain region has increased in 2011.
21
Topic Analysis* on patents of TSMC cont’d
• Descriptive statistics on clusters
Cluster
No.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
Topic (Cluster)
semiconductor manufacturing/semiconductor wafer (103/903)
semiconductor device/drain region (57/536)
semiconductor substrate/gate electrode (75/452)
semiconductor wafer/dual damascene structure (60/407)
semiconductor substrate/floating gate (40/272)
chemical mechanical polishing/semiconductor substrate (33/231)
drain region/semiconductor substrate (31/230)
semiconductor device/semiconductor substrate (50/229)
integrated circuit/memory cell (35/209)
semiconductor substrate/solder bump (31/194)
semiconductor substrate/image sensor (43/188)
memory cell/capacitor structure (24/184)
semiconductor wafer/microelectronic fabrication (31/172)
floating gate/control gate (26/162)
integrated circuit/semiconductor device (25/157)
silicon nitride/semiconductor device (14/115)
integrated circuit/CMOS image sensor (13/109)
integrated circuit/integrated circuit device (12/104)
process chamber/semiconductor processing (20/97)
storage device/manufacturing process (13/90)
contact hole/drain region (10/69)
active region/shallow trench isolation (9/52)
# of
Patents
903
536
452
407
272
231
230
229
209
194
188
184
172
162
157
115
109
104
97
90
69
52
Most Popular
Year
2006
2011
2001
2002
2001
2002
2007
2011
2010
2011
2010
2002
2004
2000
2011
2001
2004
2007
2001
2004
2004
2011
# of Patents
in most popular Year
103
57
75
60
40
33
31
50
35
31
43
24
31
26
25
14
13
12
20
13
10
9
* The EM algorithm with an entropy–based feature selection technique was used.
** Terms were extracted by Markov chain-based NLP technique.
Among 22 major topics, 5 were
popular in 2011.
- semiconductor device/drain
region
- semiconductor device/
semiconductor substrate
- semiconductor substrate/solder
bump
- integrated circuit/semiconductor
device
- active region/Shallow Trench
Isolation
22
No. of Patents
Topic Analysis* on patents in the technology field of 257
* Top 15 topics are labeled.
* The horizontal axis represents the time period, and the
vertical axis shows the number of patents.
** The bigger circle, the more patents.
*** The top 2 most popular terms are shown per cluster.
**** Clusters are represented as follows:
the most popular term/the second most popular term
(# of patent in popular year/total # of patents)
Year
•
Most of the topics are on the timeline of 2010 to
2012, meaning that these topics are growing and
heavily invested.
* See Appendix 4 for all topics.
Topic analysis finds 45 technology topics
between 2007 and 2012. The 5 most popular
topics are as follows:
1. drain region/gate electrode (1417/6189)
2. semiconductor material/semiconductor
structure (1090/4582)
3. semiconductor package/integrated
circuit (1105/4530)
4. thin film/integrated circuit (974/4402)
5. light emitting device/light emitting diode
(1162/4220)
23
Topic Areas of TSMC
* The horizontal axis represents the time period, and
the vertical axis shows the number of patents.
** The bigger circle, the more patents.
*** The top 2 most popular terms are shown per
cluster. **** Clusters are represented as follows:
the most popular term/the second most popular
term (# of patent in popular year/total # of patents)
1
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
KR
# of
Patents
3,162
2
International Business Machines Corporation
US
2,745
3
Micron Technology, Inc.
US
2,226
4
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
JP
1,744
5
Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
JP
1,374
6
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
TW
1,203
Rank
Assignee
Country
We place the topics of TSMC over the topics
of patents in the technology field of 257.
TSMC has issued most of its patents on the
major technology topics.
In addition, it seems to look that TSMC has
invested a few topics that might be emerging
or new technology topics. (See a dotted
square)
24
Topic Comparison: TSMC and Samsung Electronics
* The horizontal axis represents the time period, and
the vertical axis shows the number of patents.
** The bigger circle, the more patents.
*** The top 2 most popular terms are shown per
cluster.
**** Clusters are represented as follows:
the most popular term/the second most popular
term (# of patent in popular year/total # of patents)
1
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
KR
# of
Patents
3,162
2
International Business Machines Corporation
US
2,745
3
Micron Technology, Inc.
US
2,226
4
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
JP
1,744
5
Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
JP
1,374
6
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
TW
1,203
Rank
•
In terms of technology topics, Samsung Electronics
is a major competitor to TSMC.
Assignee
Country
TSMC and Samsung Electronics have quite
similar technology topics that they have
invested in.
However, Samsung Electronics has the
broadest topic areas among the above top 5
assignees.
Along with the major topics, Samsung
Electronics has different topic areas that are
a little overlapped with those of TSMC. (See
a dotted square), which means a different set
of patents from TSMC.
25
Topic Comparison: TSMC and IBM
* The horizontal axis represents the time period, and
the vertical axis shows the number of patents.
** The bigger circle, the more patents.
*** The top 2 most popular terms are shown per
cluster.
**** Clusters are represented as follows:
the most popular term/the second most popular
term (# of patent in popular year/total # of patents)
1
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
KR
# of
Patents
3,162
2
International Business Machines Corporation
US
2,745
3
Micron Technology, Inc.
US
2,226
4
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
JP
1,744
5
Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
JP
1,374
6
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
TW
1,203
Rank
•
In terms of technology topics, IBM is one of major
competitors to TSMC.
Assignee
Country
TSMC and IBM have quite similar technology
topics that they have invested in.
However, IBM has broader topics and more
patents on almost every topic than TSMC
has.
We observe that while having its most
patents on the major topics IBM has several
patents related to emerging or less
competitive topics.
26
Topic Comparison: TSMC and Micron Technology
* The horizontal axis represents the time period, and
the vertical axis shows the number of patents.
** The bigger circle, the more patents.
*** The top 2 most popular terms are shown per
cluster.
**** Clusters are represented as follows:
the most popular term/the second most popular
term (# of patent in popular year/total # of patents)
1
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
KR
# of
Patents
3,162
2
International Business Machines Corporation
US
2,745
3
Micron Technology, Inc.
US
2,226
4
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
JP
1,744
5
Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
JP
1,374
6
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
TW
1,203
Rank
Assignee
Country
TSMC and Micron Technology have
invested similar technology topics.
However, Micron Technology has a different
set of technology topics from TSMC. (See a
dotted square)
•
In terms of technology topics, Micron Technology is one major competitors to
TSMC.
27
Topic Comparison: TSMC and Toshiba
* The horizontal axis represents the time period, and
the vertical axis shows the number of patents.
** The bigger circle, the more patents.
*** The top 2 most popular terms are shown per
cluster.
**** Clusters are represented as follows:
the most popular term/the second most popular
term (# of patent in popular year/total # of patents)
1
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
KR
# of
Patents
3,162
2
International Business Machines Corporation
US
2,745
3
Micron Technology, Inc.
US
2,226
4
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
JP
1,744
5
Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
JP
1,374
6
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
TW
1,203
Rank
Assignee
Country
TSMC and Toshiba have very different
technology topics.
Unlike TSMC, Samsung Electronics, and
IBM, Toshiba has its unique technology
topics, which may have high entry barriers.
•
In terms of technology topics, Toshiba is not a major threat to TSMC.
28
Topic Comparison: TSMC and Semiconductor Energy Lab.
* The horizontal axis represents the time period, and
the vertical axis shows the number of patents.
** The bigger circle, the more patents.
*** The top 2 most popular terms are shown per
cluster.
**** Clusters are represented as follows:
the most popular term/the second most popular
term (# of patent in popular year/total # of patents)
1
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
KR
# of
Patents
3,162
2
International Business Machines Corporation
US
2,745
3
Micron Technology, Inc.
US
2,226
4
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
JP
1,744
5
Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
JP
1,374
6
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
TW
1,203
Rank
Assignee
Country
TSMC and Semiconductor Energy Lab.
have very different technology topics.
Like Toshiba, Semiconductor Energy Lab.
has its unique technology topics different
from topics of other assignees.
•
In terms of technology topics, Semiconductor Energy Lab. is not a major threat to
TSMC.
29
Topic Comparison: Top 5 Assignees
Red Ocean: Popular technology topics, high competition.
Blue Ocean: Popular technology topics, low competition.
Emerging Areas (Possibly): small size topics, but being invested
by major assignees
We define 3 topic areas by analyzing
the top 5 assignees’ technology
topics.
Red Ocean: Topics in this area are
popular among major assignees.
However, there are high
competitions.
• Heavily participated assignees are
TSMC, IBM, Samsung
Electronics, and Micron
Technology.
Blue Ocean: Japanese companies
have led technology development in
this area. There seems to exist high
entry barriers.
• Heavily participated assignees are
Semiconductor Energy lab.,
Toshiba, and Samsung
Electronics.
Emerging areas: Major assignees
such as Samsung Electronics,
Micron Technology, IBM, and
TSMC have started to invest in these
30
topic areas.
Findings from Topic Analysis
•
TSMC
Samsung
TSMC
Micron
Samsung IBM
Micron
•
Toshiba
Semiconductor Energy Lab.
Samsung
Micron
•
•
IBM
•
TSMC has competed with Samsung
Electronics, IBM, and Micron Technology.
These competitors have very similar technology
topics.
However, Toshiba and Semiconductor
Energy Lab. (and Samsung Electronics*)
have their own technology topics with high
entry barriers.
Samsung Electronics and Micron
technology (and IBM*) are the top 2 major
assignees that have actively invested in
possible emerging technology topics.
TSMC has stayed mostly in red ocean areas. On the other hand, Toshiba and
Semiconductor Energy Lab. have developed their own technology fields.
Although TSMC has a few patents on possibly emerging topics, Samsung
Electronics and Micron Technology (and IBM*) have actively invested in
these emerging topics.
* These assignees have relatively less patents than the listed assignees.
31
Conclusions
• In the technology field of 257, TSMC is one of the top major
assignees in terms of the quantity of patents and the impact of them.
– TSMC has issued 1,203 patents, which is the sixth largest number.
– TSMC is ranked 3rd by both PageRank and Betweenness Centrality.
• In general, TSMC has issued higher quality (important and influential) patents than other
assignees such as Micron Technology, Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, and
Semiconductor Energy Laboratory.
– TSMC has invested major topics, most of which are on highly competitive areas.
• Samsung Electronics, IBM, and Micron Technology are the most threatening
competitors.
• TSMC has less invested in emerging topics than Samsung Electronics, Micron
Technology, and IBM.
– Unlike Toshiba and Semiconductor Energy Lab., it seems that TSMC does not
have its unique technology topics.
• It would be recommended that TSMC should develop its unique
technology fields like Toshiba and invest more aggressively in
emerging topics like Samsung and Micron do.
32
Appendix 1 – Name variations
• There were more than 60 other names of ‘Taiwan
Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.’.
33
Appendix 2 - the top 60 inventors by PageRank
PageRank
Rank
1
Shunpei, Yamazaki
Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
38.451564
31
Alan, Wood
Micron Technology, Inc.
8.241465
2
Matthew, Thomas
Illumitex, Inc.
20.630214
32
Haining, Yang
International Business Machines Corporation
8.189883
2
Dung, Duong
Illumitex, Inc.
20.630214
33
Joachim, Mahler
Infineon Technologies AG
8.185752
2
Paul, Winberg
Illumitex, Inc.
20.630214
34
Mark, Doczy
Intel Corporation
5
Leonard, Forbes
Micron Technology, Inc.
20.60171
35
Hsiang-Lan, Lung
Macronix International Co. Ltd
8.126355
6
Elliot, Pickering
Illumitex, Inc.
20.278356
36
Po-Shing, Chiang
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc.
8.096437
7
Mou-Shiung, Lin
MEGIC Corporation
16.018562
36
Wei-Lun, Cheng
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc.
8.096437
8
Seng Guan, Chow
STATS ChipPAC, Ltd.
15.922942
36
Pao-Huei, Chang Chien
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc.
8.096437
9
Gurtej, Sandhu
Micron Technology, Inc.
15.426139
36
Chien-Wen, Chen
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc.
8.096437
10
Robert, Chau
Intel Corporation
14.756359
36
Ping-Cheng, Hu
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc.
8.096437
11
Edward, Nowak
International Business Machines Corporation
14.531086
41
Patrick, Quinn
Xilinx, Inc
8.050288
12
Chen-Hua, Yu
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
11.645899
42
Gerald, Negley
Cree, Inc.
7.999377
13
Suman, Datta
Intel Corporation
11.171016
43
Sukianto, Rusli
Amkor Technology, Inc.
7.935194
14
Brian, Doyle
Intel Corporation
11.096367
44
Huilong, Zhu
International Business Machines Corporation
7.822556
15
Jack, Kavalieros
Intel Corporation
10.54085
45
Uday, Shah
Intel Corporation
7.667084
16
Jin-Yuan, Lee
MEGIC Corporation
10.500985
46
Belgacem, Haba
Tessera, Inc.
7.641821
17
Justin, Brask
Intel Corporation
9.934897
47
Thomas, Happ
Infineon Technologies AG
7.638735
18
Bruce, Doris
International Business Machines Corporation
9.887414
48
Ronald Patrick, Huemoeller
Amkor Technology, Inc.
7.572405
19
Jun, Koyama
Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
9.63034
49
Dureseti, Chidambarrao
International Business Machines Corporation
7.511611
20
Toru, Takayama
Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
9.546393
50
Chenming, Hu
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
7.451578
21
Kyle, Kirby
Micron Technology, Inc.
9.472559
51
Ying-chih, Chen
MEGIC Corporation
7.299187
22
Gordon, Haller
Micron Technology, Inc.
9.426556
52
Heap Hoe, Kuan
STATS ChipPAC, Ltd.
7.179708
23
Chih-Chao, Yang
International Business Machines Corporation
9.283184
53
Matthew, Currie
AmberWave Systems Corp.
7.150259
24
Il Kwon, Shim
STATS ChipPAC, Ltd.
9.214418
54
Zhe, Ding
Honeywell International, Inc.
7.112492
25
Brent, Anderson
International Business Machines Corporation
9.107662
55
Salman, Akram
Micron Technology, Inc.
6.995864
26
Warren, Farnworth
Micron Technology, Inc.
8.984378
56
Montgomery, Manning
Micron Technology, Inc.
6.973411
27
Fu-Liang, Yang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
8.972037
57
Eigo, Tange
Renesas Technology, Corp.
6.972972
28
Arup, Bhattacharyya
Micron Technology, Inc.
8.592171
58
Anthony, Minervini
Knowles Electronics, LLC
6.920843
29
Kie, Ahn
Micron Technology, Inc.
8.409562
59
Matthew, Metz
Intel Corporation
6.894688
30
Hsiang Lan, Lung
Macronix International Co. Ltd
8.2855
60
William, Hiatt
Micron Technology, Inc.
6.833838
Rank
Inventor
Assignee
Inventor
Assignee
PageRank
8.14519
Appendix 3 - the top 60 inventors by Betweenness Centrality
Rank
Assignee
Betweenness
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
21
21
24
25
26
27
28
29
Shunpei, Yamazaki
Yoshinobu, Suehiro
Leonard, Forbes
Chen-Hua, Yu
Seng Guan, Chow
Gurtej, Sandhu
Mou-Shiung, Lin
Salman, Akram
David, Corisis
Jeffrey, Gambino
Chandra, Mouli
Paul, Goodwin
Enchao, Yu
Abraham, Ma
Joachim, Mahler
Arup, Bhattacharyya
Edward, Nowak
Luan, Tran
Il Kwon, Shim
Robert, Chau
Paul, Winberg
Dung, Duong
Matthew, Thomas
Venkat, Kolagunta
Elliot, Pickering
Ralf, Otremba
Dureseti, Chidambarrao
Primit, Parikh
Chih-Chao, Yang
Inventor
Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd.
Micron Technology, Inc.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
STATS ChipPAC, Ltd.
Micron Technology, Inc.
MEGIC Corporation
Micron Technology, Inc.
Micron Technology, Inc.
International Business Machines Corporation
Micron Technology, Inc.
Staktek Group L.P.
Netlist, Inc.
Super Talent Electronics, Inc.
Infineon Technologies AG
Micron Technology, Inc.
International Business Machines Corporation
Micron Technology, Inc.
STATS ChipPAC, Ltd.
Intel Corporation
Illumitex, Inc.
Illumitex, Inc.
Illumitex, Inc.
Freescale Semiconductor, Inc,
Illumitex, Inc.
Infineon Technologies AG
International Business Machines Corporation
Cree, Inc.
International Business Machines Corporation
17440011.63
9652827.49
7715643.423
7412117.249
7016185.63
6441426.888
4922525.28
4331923.65
4259508.688
4090466.113
3640790.809
3523504.735
3434396.367
3341930.105
2627494.574
2515177.468
2506756.753
2370568.498
2224441.7
2220226.044
1960647.645
1960647.645
1960647.645
1908787.353
1899776.948
1844166.564
1830077.269
1725753.301
1716834.551
Rank
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
46
48
49
50
50
50
50
54
55
56
57
58
59
30
Kie, Ahn
Micron Technology, Inc.
1620202.191
60
Inventor
Yaojian, Lin
Meikei, Ieong
Qi, Wang
Huilong, Zhu
Haining, Yang
Charles, Lin
Jun Ho, Jang
Hsiang Lan, Lung
Brian, Doyle
Ronald Patrick, Huemoeller
Dong-Ho, Lee
Sukianto, Rusli
Belgacem, Haba
Fu-Liang, Yang
Sun Kyung, Kim
Cheng-Tien, Lai
Cheng-tien, Lai
Scott, List
Gordon, Haller
Hyun Kyong, Cho
Jun Ho, Jang
Sun Kyung, Kim
Hyun Kyong, Cho
Bruce, Doris
John, Trezza
Sheng Teng, Hsu
Wen-Chih, Chiou
Suman, Datta
Zhong-Xiang, He
Assignee
STATS ChipPAC, Ltd.
International Business Machines Corporation
Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation
International Business Machines Corporation
International Business Machines Corporation
Bridge Semiconductor Corporation
LG Electronics, Inc.
Macronix International Co. Ltd
Intel Corporation
Amkor Technology, Inc.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Amkor Technology, Inc.
Tessera, Inc.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
LG Innotek Co., Ltd.
Foxconn Technology Co., Ltd.
Fu Zhun Precision Industry (Shen Zhen) Co., Ltd.
Intel Corporation
Micron Technology, Inc.
LG Innotek Co., Ltd.
LG Innotek Co., Ltd.
LG Electronics, Inc.
LG Electronics, Inc.
International Business Machines Corporation
Cufer Assett Ltd. L.L.C.
Sharp Laboratories of America, Inc.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
Intel Corporation
International Business Machines Corporation
Betweenness
1608413.822
1563045.741
1419098.108
1339868.131
1336927.122
1299214.968
1244675.919
1205797.718
1198919.578
1197329.411
1196060.269
1173884.366
1169629.672
1157142.584
1148682.525
1139898.553
1139898.553
1138501.703
1135245.225
1130596.525
1130596.525
1130596.525
1130596.525
1109285.779
1091974.902
1070973.493
1059065.047
1055807.41
1040715.218
Michael, Krames
Philips Lumileds Lighting Company, LLC
1009508.959
Appendix 4 – Topics under US Classification of 257
Cluster
No.
Topics
# of
Patents
Most Popular
Year
Cluster
No.
Topics
# of
Patents
Most Popular
Year
1
drain region/gate electrode (1417/6189)
6,189
2011
24
upper electrode/lower electrode (73/281)
281
2010
2
semiconductor material/semiconductor structure (1090/4582)
4,582
2010
25
quantum well/thin film transistor (70/259)
259
2010
3
semiconductor package/integrated circuit (1105/4530)
4,530
2011
26
electronic device/heat sink (49/221)
221
2010
4
thin film/integrated circuit (974/4402)
4,402
2007
27
memory cell/memory device (43/185)
185
2010
5
light emitting device/light emitting diode (1162/4220)
4,220
2011
28
gate electrode/drain electrode (48/174)
174
2010
6
integrated circuit/semiconductor wafer (768/3762)
3,762
2007
29
Field-effect transistor/gate electrode (55/163)
163
2010
7
semiconductor chip/integrated circuit (869/3744)
3,744
2011
30
floating gate/memory cell (42/139)
139
2011
8
heat sink/semiconductor chip (743/3401)
3,401
2010
31
gate electrode/metal silicide (33/136)
136
2010
9
insulating film/heat treatment (756/3217)
3,217
2011
32
semiconductor chip/upper surface (39/133)
133
2010
10
integrated circuit/hard mask (452/2666)
2,666
2007
33
electronic device/gate electrode (35/120)
120
2011
11
gate electrode/insulating film (711/2577)
2,577
2011
34
heat sink/integrated circuit (24/104)
104
2008
12
integrated circuit/memory cell (466/2326)
2,326
2009
35
gate electrode/thin film transistor (25/92)
92
2010
13
contact hole/gate electrode (502/2079)
2,079
2010
36
gate electrode/strained silicon (23/86)
86
2011
14
gate electrode/drain electrode (476/1708)
1,708
2010
37
memory cell/memory device (18/77)
77
2011
15
general formula/electronic device (417/1479)
1,479
2011
38
memory device/drain region (17/76)
76
2011
16
thin film transistor/insulating film (334/1308)
1,308
2010
39
electrical connection/multiple power mode (25/73)
73
2010
17
insulating film/semiconductor chip (285/1093)
1,093
2011
40
control gate/floating gate (20/66)
66
2009
18
interconnect structure/integrated circuit (264/1068)
1,068
2010
41
integrated circuit/gallium nitride (22/62)
62
2011
19
light emitting device/light emitting (193/704)
704
2011
42
lower electrode/upper electrode (15/57)
57
2011
20
insulating film/gate electrode (132/575)
575
2011
43
floating gate/control gate (14/55)
55
2012
21
memory cell/active region (132/506)
506
2011
44
capacitor structure/thin film (13/49)
49
2009
22
semiconductor structure/emitting device (138/391)
391
2011
45
control signal/input signal (9/24)
24
2010
23
conductive material/dielectric material (69/297)
297
2007