Layout of Silicon Photonics: Opportunities are for those who are prepared

2025/09/19

Yahoo! News
September 16, 2025
Author NOWnews Today News Reporter Zhong Hongliang / Taipei Report

[NOWnews Today News] Taiwan held the International Semiconductor Exhibition (SEMICON) last week, and domestic and foreign semiconductor companies gathered together. The Ministry of Economic Affairs held a ministerial media exchange meeting today (16). When talking about industrial policy, Minister of Economic Affairs Gong Mingxin mentioned that silicon photonics was one of the most discussed topics at SEMICON and is expected to become an important technology within 3 to 10 years. He believes that "opportunities are always reserved for those who are prepared", and Taiwan is fully prepared.

Gong Mingxin's report pointed out that Taiwan experienced a "stagnant economy" in 2016 and successively proposed the "5+2 Industrial Innovation Policy" and "Six Core Strategic Industries" to lay the foundation and establish a new industrial structure, making Taiwan a key force in the international arena.

This is also reflected in Taiwan's economic performance. From 2018 to 2019, when the US-China trade war began, economic growth averaged 2.99%. From 2020 to 2023, during the COVID-19 pandemic, GDP growth averaged 4.27%. After Trump's reciprocal tariffs were implemented this year, GDP growth averaged 6.75% in the first half of the year.

However, Taiwan has recently faced challenges such as extreme weather, geopolitical factors, tariffs, and restrictions on key materials and technologies. However, Taiwan has also gradually become an innovation platform and a builder of international cooperation for the global semiconductor and technology industries. It plays a key role in the industry's long-term development over the next 10 to 20 years, even having a say, and its planned development directions serve as a crucial reference for other countries.

Thus, in its 2016 budget, the Ministry of Economic Affairs increased its innovation efforts for large enterprises, including the NT$10 billion A+ Enterprise Innovation and R&D Quenching Program and the NT$5.58 billion Industrial Upgrading Innovation Platform Guidance Program. Small and medium-sized enterprises received NT$10.9 billion in enterprise assistance and a NT$3 billion AI mentoring program.

The government is also actively implementing five key trust industries. For example, although Taiwan entered the drone sector relatively late, leveraging its strong manufacturing capabilities, it is actively improving its basic supply chain. By building drone system integration capabilities through the military industry and collaborating with international manufacturers, the company aims to increase drone production value to NT$16 billion by 2026 and NT$30 billion by 2027. Furthermore, the security industry is establishing a transparency and disclosure platform for security devices.

Regarding the future development of Taiwan's semiconductor industry, he emphasized that successes like CoWoS are the result of 15 to 20 years of planning, and that future plans for silicon photonics, robotics, and quantum computing will also be a 15 to 20-year project. "Opportunities always come to those who are prepared." Silicon photonics is expected to become a key technology within the next three to ten years, allowing CoWoS to evolve further.

When asked how to implement President Lai Ching-te's "democratic supply chain," Gong Mingxin stated that Taiwan already holds a leading position in semiconductor manufacturing processes, giving it a relatively dominant position in the democratic supply chain. Taiwan entered other industries, such as drones and robotics, relatively late. However, it still has manufacturing advantages. Taiwan currently needs to strengthen its fundamentals, moving from general-purpose chips to chips that can meet the needs of drones and robots.

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