Hinomaru Semiconductor

Japan once dominated the world in semiconductor technology. In the 1980s, about 8 of　the top 10 companies were Japanese semiconductor companies. In Japan, not only semiconductor manufacturing but also the development of semiconductor manufacturing equipments were actively carried out, and the high quality and performance of Japanese equipments were known to the world in this field.

Semiconductors in Taiwan

Taiwan has been focusing on semiconductors since the mid- 80 s. The semiconductor manufacturing company with the most advanced manufacturing technology at present is TSMC in Taiwan. The semiconductor industry in Taiwan was established like a bamboo shoot from the middle of the 80 s. It took a different strategy from the Japanese semiconductor industry. In Japan, NEC, Hitachi, TOSHIBA, MITSUBISHI, Fujitsu, etc. have been competing with each other, and each company has innovated technology from the standpoint of competition. As such, it was the strategy which finished the semiconductor technology of Japan in the world. Taiwan, on the other hand, was lagging behind Japan in the field of semiconductors, with approximately 5 ~ 7 semiconductor plants located in Hsinchu Science Park. When I went to each factory for sales, I noticed that each factory produces different types of semiconductors. In Taiwan, each company manufactured its own specialized semiconductor without competing with other companies. In the case of Japan, one company manufactured various semiconductors, but in Taiwan, all companies manufactured semiconductors equivalent to one company in Japan. It is remembered that it was around 1987 to 88, the scale of semiconductor manufacturing in 1 country of Taiwan at that time was equivalent to that of Fujitsu in Japan.

Semiconductor application

At that time, semiconductors were considered the rice of industry. In the past, semiconductors were used for computer set but since then Japan started to mount it for home appliances such as vacuum cleaners and/or washing machines and their performance has been remarkably improved by semiconductor control. In 1989, I stayed at the Texas Instruments Sherman plant for 1 month to coordinate the installation of the equipment, and I was surprised that the plant was producing missiles and that the missiles were being produced in a semiconductor plant. The automobile has become a mass of semiconductors now, and it is not possible to develop high-performance weapons without semiconductors.

Substrate for semiconductor circuits

The base which makes the semiconductor circuit is called a silicon wafer which is made by slicing and polishing the high purity silicon materials. At present, the companies which can produce the most advanced silicon wafers are Shi-Eetsu Handotai and SUMCO in Japan and Global Wafer Japan, whose headquarters are located in Taiwan. Although there are silicon wafer manufacturing companies in Korea, China, Germany, Finland, Belarus, and other countries, Japanese manufacturers are still able to manufacture cutting-edge substrates at the nano level.

Semiconductor, a strategic material

The author attaches more importance to semiconductors from the viewpoint of national defense security.

① Hinomaru Semiconductors once dominated the world.

② American semiconductor with superior design philosophy and architecture.

③ Taiwan Semiconductor, which has built leading-edge manufacturing technology.

I believe that we will contribute to the defense security of the world by building a semiconductor alliance between Japan, the United States, and Taiwan, which excels in semiconductor materials, manufacturing equipment, chip design, and process technology, and by preventing the leakage of these technologies and their supply to CCPs.

Even if a missile or a nuclear warhead were to be built, it would be impossible to accurately land the missile or control a long-range missile without semiconductors. Semiconductors are now part of cutting-edge weapons.

Prevention of technology leakage and supply to CCP

Technology leakage is not only the thorough monitoring of industrial espionage, but also the outflow of engineers who lost their jobs. The Japanese semiconductor industry has lost its momentum and has continued to shrink, and as a result, excellent engineers have been bought by CCPs and South Korea, and the technology has been handed down to third countries. In order to prevent this, a budget is needed to secure engineers who have lost their jobs and retired engineers. I believe Legal action and generous compensation prevent leakage of engineers. For the prevention of supply to CCPs, it is necessary to restore COCOM, which was previously under the Trade Control Ordinance. The global economy has effectively nullified COCOM, but from the perspective of national defense and security, I hope that COCOM will be restored.

Summary

CCP has developed the semiconductor technology by the technology exploitation from Japan and the use of the lawless patent until now. Semiconductor technologies will be developed more and more in the future, and the latest weapons will be completed with it. We hope the U.S.-Japan-Taiwan Semiconductor Alliance will be established as soon as possible and be provided to the defense and security of the world.

March 10, 2021

Yamashita Institute of Political&Economy