TSMC Zeros In On Power Management IC Market

Taipei, March 7, 2006 (CENS)--Silicon-foundry giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) has decided to help Taiwanese designers of analog Ics snatch up at least 10% of the world market for power-management chips by offering them unique manufacturing processes and reasonable foundry costs.

The world' s No.1 pure-foundry supplier recently set up a team to deal with power-management IC projects. The team entered into alliances with five of Taiwan' s power-management IC suppliers, including Richtek Technology Corp. and System General Corp.

Demands for the chips used in portable electronic gadgets have increased worldwide, according to Taiwanese industry watchers. The process for making the chips is quite unique and completely different from the normal CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) process. Making the power management chips is one of TSMC' s niche businesses, returning it a lucrative profit.

The project is considered a part of TSMC' s plan to prevent low-priced peers from staging a price-cutting war in its area.

TSMC' s partners in this case hope that by strengthening their muscles through cooperation with TSMC, they will make themselves real competitors for international players such as Intersil, Maxim, Linear and Fairchild that are already in the game.

Taiwanese IC designers pointed out that although the power-management chips are a major analog IC item, the Taiwan industry has only gained 6% of the world market for them. The designers attributed the Taiwan industry' s minor market portion mostly to suppliers' lack of in-house manufacturing capability in Taiwan. Intersil, Maxim, Linear, and Fairchild each have their own silicon-wafer fabrication factories and proprietary processes.

Most Taiwanese designers of power-management Ics have depended on TSMC for manufacturing capacity and processes. With TSMC' s strong support, Taiwanese designers are expected to secure more orders from suppliers of motherboards, liquid-crystal display (LCD) panels, and notebook computers.

TSMC has even sent its executives to visit local power-management IC buyers, including Delta Electronics Inc., Asustek Computer Inc., Quanta Computer Inc., and Lite-On Electronics Inc., to help the power-management IC makers generate orders.

Taiwanese industry watchers pointed out that the TSMC' s project highlights the reality that even big foundry players like TSMC must actively tap new businesses at a time when the competition is heating up.