Abstract
The explosive demand of smart phones and tablet PCs led to substantial growth of equipments of 28nm process. Even the biggest foundry manufacturer is not 100% meeting the orders and an emergency expansion of 28nm production line is needed. In anticipation of a huge market in the next few years, manufactures are ready to import the 20nm process at an early stage. In the semiconductor industry, the most critical factor of component scale is the quality of the process equipments. Manufacturer who owns the most advanced process equipments and process environment will be at an invincible position. The most critical equipment in the semiconductor process equipments is lithography equipment. The development of lithography equipment affects the development of semiconductor equipment industry, as well as the semiconductor industry. However, the impact of such critical industry equipment is supposed to be a highly competitive market, but as the line width of the semiconductor manufacturing process decreases, the equipments require greater precision and this limits the number of manufacturers entering the market. In recent years, European company, ASML, almost monopolized the market, while ASML only specializes in lithography equipment, how did ASML become the top three suppliers of semiconductor equipment, and what values do ASML bring to the down-stream semiconductor manufacturers, which enables them to lead the semiconductor equipment market？ Through the relevant literature and industry analysis, the present study hopes to discuss how ASML maintained its competitive advantages through cooperation with global foundries and upstream suppliers. The results of study show that the technology of process has become the source of industry competition. Equipment manufacturers need to cooperate with semiconductor manufacturers in order to break the limitations of this physical condition, and co-develop the next-generation equipment. To be able to create quality products more efficiently, system vendors let the suppliers manufacture the majority of the components, while themselves responsible for the assembling and quality testing. In order to ensure high product quality, system vendors establish a review mechanism on the suppliers. At the same time, system vendors will also provide suppliers with the assistance and cooperation needed to maintain their competitiveness, thus creating sustainable common interests.