Abstract

Technological progress in semiconductor chips plays a central role in enabling the Information Technology revolution. Continual technological progress in semiconductor chips, which has become popular under the name of Moore’s Law, reduces the cost of storing and processing information. While the role of the semiconductor chip manufacturing companies in driving Moore’s Law is well known, less attention has been given to the equally important role played by upstream suppliers who produce the tools that are necessary to make the chips. In the early stages of the industry, the chip manufacturers made their own tools in-house. Using data at the initial stages of the industry and a wealth of publicly available information from interviews with industry pioneers conducted as part of oral history projects, this article examines how (i) market size (ii) heterogeneity in firm capabilities (iii) geographic proximity to manufacturing clusters, influenced the emergence of these semiconductor tools suppliers.

摘要

半导体芯片的技术进步在推动信息技术革命中发挥着核心作用。半导体芯片的持续技术进步以摩尔定律的名义变得流行，降低了存储和处理信息的成本。虽然半导体芯片制造公司在推动摩尔定律方面的作用众所周知，但很少有人关注生产制造芯片所需工具的上游供应商所发挥的同样重要的作用。在该行业的早期阶段，芯片制造商自己制作工具。使用行业初始阶段的数据以及作为口述历史项目的一部分对行业先驱进行采访的大量公开信息，