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 Period # of Patents # of Inventors
TSMC 2000-2012 5,193 6,660

•Top 10 technology fields of TSMC (US Patent Classification First-Level

Categories)
Rank Technology Field Number of Patents*
1 257:Active solid-state devices (e.g., transistors, solid-state diodes) 3,397
2 438:Semiconductor device manufacturing: process 2,672
3 430:Radiation imagery chemistry: process, composition, or product thereof 325
4 365:Static information storage and retrieval 262
5 700:Data processing: generic control systems or specific applications 209
6 216:Etching a substrate: processes 128
7 716:Data processing: design and analysis of circuit or semiconductor mask 122
8 134:Cleaning and liquid contact with solids 110
9 361:Electricity: electrical systems and devices 106
10 327:Miscellaneous active electrical nonlinear devices, circuits, and systems 105

•Data collection for patents in US Patent Classification of 257

Technology Field Period # of Patents # of Inventors # of Assignees** # of Countries
257 2007-2012 59,471 51,972 2,993 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 Assignee Country # of Patents Rank Assignee Country # of Inventors
1 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. KR 3,162 1 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. KR 3,483
2 International Business Machines Corporation US 2,745 2 International Business Machines Corporation US 2,450
3 Micron Technology, Inc. US 2,226 3 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba JP 1,410
4 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba JP 1,744 4 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd. TW 1,365
5 Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd. JP 1,374 5 Infineon Technologies AG DE 1,258
6 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd. TW 1,203 6 Intel Corporation US 1,054
7 Infineon Technologies AG DE 1,200 7 Renesas Technology, Corp. JP 1,018
8 Intel Corporation US 1,107 8 Panasonic Corporation JP 884
9 Hynix Semiconductor, Inc. KR 944 9 Micron Technology, Inc. US 839
10 Panasonic Corporation JP 772 10 Texas Instruments Incoporated US 819
11 Texas Instruments Incoporated US 718 11 Renesas Electronics Corporation JP 814
12 NEC Electronics Corporation JP 664 12 Applied Materials, Inc. US 757
13 Seiko Epson Corporation JP 656 13 Sony Corporation JP 720
14 Renesas Technology, Corp. JP 654 14 Fujitsu Microelectronics Limited JP 713
15 Fujitsu Microelectronics Limited JP 606 15 Hynix Semiconductor, Inc. KR 699
16 Sony Corporation JP 592 16 NEC Electronics Corporation JP 667
17 Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. US 585 17 Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. JP 633
18 Renesas Electronics Corportion JP 498 18 Hitachi, Ltd. JP 624
19 Dongbu Electronics Co., Ltd KR 482 19 Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. US 623
20 Dongbu HiTek, Co., Ltd. KR 443 20 Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha JP 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
* 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.
2
Cluster 1 in red represents the
relationships between the top 10
assignees. They have stronger
1 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 TSMC is the third most important assignee under
1 International Business Machines Corporation 33.319367
US Classification of 257.
2 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. 28.264505 IBM and Samsung Electronics are the top 2
3 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd. 22.982529 assignees in terms of PageRank score.
4 Micron Technology, Inc. 20.826821
Although Samsung Electronics has the most
5 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba 20.243724 patents under this classification, its impact is
6 Intel Corporation 18.505991 next to that of IBM.
7 Infineon Technologies AG 16.626531
On the contrary, the analysis reveals that TSMC
8 Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd. 14.069179
is ranked 3rd by importance, though it is at 6 th by
9 Panasonic Corporation 12.509489 the total number of patents.
10 Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. 11.840193
11 NEC Electronics Corporation 11.751204
12 Sony Corporation 11.494882
13 STATS ChipPAC, Ltd. 11.10989
14 Renesas Technology, Corp. 10.622072
15 Cree, Inc. 10.164305

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 TSMC is the third most influential assignee in the
1 International Business Machines Corporation 395939.64
technology field of 257.
2 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. 295207.83 IBM and Samsung Electronics are the top 2
3 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd. 211841.53 assignees in terms of betweenness centrality
4 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba 177330.19 score.
5 Intel Corporation 150580.73 Although Samsung Electronics has the most
6 Micron Technology, Inc. 146722.34 patents under this classification, its influence on
7 Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd. 111323.64 other inventors is somewhat limited.
8 Infineon Technologies AG 110178.81
On the contrary, the analysis indicates that
9 Cree, Inc.* 87210.531 TSMC is one of the top 3 leading assignees in
10 Sony Corporation* 84321.651 this category.
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

12
Inventor networks of the US Classification of 257
* The citation network was drawn based on the top
100 most important inventors by PageRank.
1 ** 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)
•77 : Yee-Chia, Yeo (6.112)
th

It seems to look that there are active

2 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 TSMC has 7 inventors listed on the top 100
inventors by PageRank.
1 Micron Technology, Inc. 15
2 International Business Machines Corporation 14
Micron Technology, Inc. and IBM are the top 2
3 Intel Corporation 8
assignees that have the largest number of
4 Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc. 7 inventors on the top 100 list.
5 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd. 7
6 Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd. 5 Even though Samsung Electronics has the
7 MEGIC Corporation 4 most largest number of patents in this category,
it has only 1 inventor that is on the top 100
8 Illumitex, Inc. 4
inventor list.
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

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,
1 which are TSMC, Samsung Electronics, IBM,
Toshiba, and Semiconductor Energy Lab.

The most important person is Shunpei,

Yamazaki of Semiconductor Energy
Laboratory In Japan.
2 There are 6 inventors of TSMC on the top
100 inventor list (See Appendix 2 for the
3 top 60 inventors):
4 •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
1. IBM network 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.

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
TSMC has 6 inventors listed on the top 100
Rank Assignee # of Inventors inventors by Betweenness Centrality.
1 International Business Machines Corporation 17
2 Micron Technology, Inc. 13 IBM and Micron Technology, Inc. are the top 2
3 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd. 6 assignees that have the largest number of
4 Intel Corporation 6 inventors on the top 100 list.
5 STATS ChipPAC, Ltd. 4
6 Illumitex, Inc. 4 Even though Samsung Electronics has the most
largest number of patents in this category, it has
7 LG Electronics, Inc. 3
only 2 inventors that are on the top 100 inventor
8 LG Innotek Co., Ltd. 3
list.
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

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
* The horizontal axis represents the time period, and
the vertical axis shows the number of patents.
No. 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
* The horizontal axis represents the time period, and
the vertical axis shows the number of patents.
No. 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 (2006-
2007), 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 # of Most Popular # of Patents
Topic (Cluster) Among 22 major topics, 5 were
No. Patents Year in most popular Year
1 semiconductor manufacturing/semiconductor wafer (103/903) 903 2006 103 popular in 2011.
2 semiconductor device/drain region (57/536) 536 2011 57 - semiconductor device/drain
3 semiconductor substrate/gate electrode (75/452) 452 2001 75
region
4 semiconductor wafer/dual damascene structure (60/407) 407 2002 60
5 semiconductor substrate/floating gate (40/272) 272 2001 40 - semiconductor device/
6 chemical mechanical polishing/semiconductor substrate (33/231) 231 2002 33 semiconductor substrate
7 drain region/semiconductor substrate (31/230) 230 2007 31 - semiconductor substrate/solder
8 semiconductor device/semiconductor substrate (50/229) 229 2011 50
bump
9 integrated circuit/memory cell (35/209) 209 2010 35
10 semiconductor substrate/solder bump (31/194) 194 2011 31 - integrated circuit/semiconductor
11 semiconductor substrate/image sensor (43/188) 188 2010 43 device
12 memory cell/capacitor structure (24/184) 184 2002 24 - active region/Shallow Trench
13 semiconductor wafer/microelectronic fabrication (31/172) 172 2004 31
Isolation
14 floating gate/control gate (26/162) 162 2000 26
15 integrated circuit/semiconductor device (25/157) 157 2011 25
16 silicon nitride/semiconductor device (14/115) 115 2001 14
17 integrated circuit/CMOS image sensor (13/109) 109 2004 13
18 integrated circuit/integrated circuit device (12/104) 104 2007 12
19 process chamber/semiconductor processing (20/97) 97 2001 20
20 storage device/manufacturing process (13/90) 90 2004 13
21 contact hole/drain region (10/69) 69 2004 10
22 active region/shallow trench isolation (9/52) 52 2011 9

* The EM algorithm with an entropy–based feature selection technique was used.

** Terms were extracted by Markov chain-based NLP technique. 22
 Topic Analysis* on patents in the technology field of 257
* The horizontal axis represents the time period, and the
* Top 15 topics are labeled.
vertical axis shows the number of patents.
No. 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)

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)
Year
5. light emitting device/light emitting diode
(1162/4220)
• 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. 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)
# of
Rank Assignee Country
Patents
1 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. KR 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

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)
# of
Rank Assignee Country
Patents
1 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. KR 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

TSMC and Samsung Electronics have

• In terms of technology topics, Samsung Electronics
is a major competitor to TSMC.
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)
# of
Rank Assignee Country
Patents
1 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. KR 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

TSMC and IBM have quite similar technology

• In terms of technology topics, IBM is one of major
competitors to TSMC.
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)
# of
Rank Assignee Country
Patents
1 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. KR 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

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)
# of
Rank Assignee Country
Patents
1 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. KR 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

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)
# of
Rank Assignee Country
Patents
1 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. KR 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

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
We define 3 topic areas by analyzing
the top 5 assignees’ technology
Red Ocean: Popular technology topics, high competition. topics.
Blue Ocean: Popular technology topics, low competition. Red Ocean: Topics in this area are
Emerging Areas (Possibly): small size topics, but being invested popular among major assignees.
by 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
topic areas.
30
Findings from Topic Analysis
•
TSMC has competed with Samsung
Electronics, IBM, and Micron Technology.
TSMC
• These competitors have very similar technology
Samsung IBM topics.
TSMC Micron • However, Toshiba and Semiconductor
Samsung IBM
Toshiba Energy Lab. (and Samsung Electronics*)
Micron
Semiconductor Energy Lab. have their own technology topics with high
Samsung
entry barriers.
Micron • 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
Rank Inventor Assignee PageRank Rank Inventor Assignee PageRank
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 8.14519
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
 Appendix 3 - the top 60 inventors by Betweenness Centrality
Rank Inventor Assignee Betweenness Rank Inventor Assignee Betweenness
1 Shunpei, Yamazaki Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd. 17440011.63 31 Yaojian, Lin STATS ChipPAC, Ltd. 1608413.822
2 Yoshinobu, Suehiro Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd. 9652827.49 32 Meikei, Ieong International Business Machines Corporation 1563045.741
3 Leonard, Forbes Micron Technology, Inc. 7715643.423 33 Qi, Wang Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation 1419098.108
4 Chen-Hua, Yu Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd. 7412117.249 34 Huilong, Zhu International Business Machines Corporation 1339868.131
5 Seng Guan, Chow STATS ChipPAC, Ltd. 7016185.63 35 Haining, Yang International Business Machines Corporation 1336927.122
6 Gurtej, Sandhu Micron Technology, Inc. 6441426.888 36 Charles, Lin Bridge Semiconductor Corporation 1299214.968
7 Mou-Shiung, Lin MEGIC Corporation 4922525.28 37 Jun Ho, Jang LG Electronics, Inc. 1244675.919
8 Salman, Akram Micron Technology, Inc. 4331923.65 38 Hsiang Lan, Lung Macronix International Co. Ltd 1205797.718
9 David, Corisis Micron Technology, Inc. 4259508.688 39 Brian, Doyle Intel Corporation 1198919.578
10 Jeffrey, Gambino International Business Machines Corporation 4090466.113 40 Ronald Patrick, Huemoeller Amkor Technology, Inc. 1197329.411
11 Chandra, Mouli Micron Technology, Inc. 3640790.809 41 Dong-Ho, Lee Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. 1196060.269
12 Paul, Goodwin Staktek Group L.P. 3523504.735 42 Sukianto, Rusli Amkor Technology, Inc. 1173884.366
13 Enchao, Yu Netlist, Inc. 3434396.367 43 Belgacem, Haba Tessera, Inc. 1169629.672
14 Abraham, Ma Super Talent Electronics, Inc. 3341930.105 44 Fu-Liang, Yang Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd. 1157142.584
15 Joachim, Mahler Infineon Technologies AG 2627494.574 45 Sun Kyung, Kim LG Innotek Co., Ltd. 1148682.525
16 Arup, Bhattacharyya Micron Technology, Inc. 2515177.468 46 Cheng-Tien, Lai Foxconn Technology Co., Ltd. 1139898.553
17 Edward, Nowak International Business Machines Corporation 2506756.753 46 Cheng-tien, Lai Fu Zhun Precision Industry (Shen Zhen) Co., Ltd. 1139898.553
18 Luan, Tran Micron Technology, Inc. 2370568.498 48 Scott, List Intel Corporation 1138501.703
19 Il Kwon, Shim STATS ChipPAC, Ltd. 2224441.7 49 Gordon, Haller Micron Technology, Inc. 1135245.225
20 Robert, Chau Intel Corporation 2220226.044 50 Hyun Kyong, Cho LG Innotek Co., Ltd. 1130596.525
21 Paul, Winberg Illumitex, Inc. 1960647.645 50 Jun Ho, Jang LG Innotek Co., Ltd. 1130596.525
21 Dung, Duong Illumitex, Inc. 1960647.645 50 Sun Kyung, Kim LG Electronics, Inc. 1130596.525
21 Matthew, Thomas Illumitex, Inc. 1960647.645 50 Hyun Kyong, Cho LG Electronics, Inc. 1130596.525
24 Venkat, Kolagunta Freescale Semiconductor, Inc, 1908787.353 54 Bruce, Doris International Business Machines Corporation 1109285.779
25 Elliot, Pickering Illumitex, Inc. 1899776.948 55 John, Trezza Cufer Assett Ltd. L.L.C. 1091974.902
26 Ralf, Otremba Infineon Technologies AG 1844166.564 56 Sheng Teng, Hsu Sharp Laboratories of America, Inc. 1070973.493
27 Dureseti, Chidambarrao International Business Machines Corporation 1830077.269 57 Wen-Chih, Chiou Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd. 1059065.047
28 Primit, Parikh Cree, Inc. 1725753.301 58 Suman, Datta Intel Corporation 1055807.41
29 Chih-Chao, Yang International Business Machines Corporation 1716834.551 59 Zhong-Xiang, He International Business Machines Corporation 1040715.218
30 Kie, Ahn Micron Technology, Inc. 1620202.191 60 Michael, Krames Philips Lumileds Lighting Company, LLC 1009508.959
 Appendix 4 – Topics under US Classification of 257
Cluster # of Most Popular Cluster # of Most Popular
Topics Topics
No. Patents Year No. Patents 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