Tham khảo tài liệu '21st century manufacturing episode 2 part 2', kỹ thuật - công nghệ, cơ khí - chế tạo máy phục vụ nhu cầu học tập, nghiên cứu và làm việc hiệu quả | 214 Semiconductor Manufacturing Chap. 5 Texas and California semiconductors became an intensely competitive global industry by the 1980s with Japanese producers steadily usurping the market lead. In the 1980s the . semiconductor industry s competitive slide was caused in large part by persistent manufacturing weaknesses. The slide was initially blamed on unfair trade practices by Japan. But while their Japanese competitors focused intensely on process improvements that enabled them to boost chip yield and lower production costs . firms concentrated on improving chip miniaturization and functionality and largely neglected the efficiency of the production process. Lagging productivity and product quality sharply undercut the competitiveness of . semiconductors. By 1985 things looked especially grim for much of the . industry. Excess fabrication capacity led to huge industry losses and many semiconductor start-ups were forced out of the market. Routine production then moved out of the United States to Japan Malaysia South Korea and Taiwan in order to take advantage uf low labor costs but also because of excellent production methods. The loss of market share and cumulative production experience appeared to doom the . semiconductor industry. The competitive picture for the . semiconductor industry is very different today. Macher and associates 1998 identify the following corrective issues The improvements in quality assurance in all aspects of . fabrication Many innovative fabrication methods in lithography etching and doping Important changes in the worldwide demand for semiconductors The fact that in the mid-1980s the United States withdrew from some IC product lines certain memory products were examples these were products in which design binovations could not compensate against the superior capital investments that other countries had made in manufacturing excellence in their foundries The change in . quality is clearly shown in the period .
