半導體市場需求因ICAC5再次增長，ICAC5分別代表IoT（物聯網）、Cloud（雲端）、AI（人工智慧）、Car（車輛）、5G，又因2019年年底COVID-19疫情的爆發，遠距工作和遠距學習的新生活型態也大幅提升終端電子產品的需求，在半導體產業鏈中，以上游的IC設計業從中受惠最多，然而半導體企業在迎接市場榮景時不斷增加資本支出，也同時面臨人才短缺的窘境，因此提升資源運用效率是IC設計業需面臨的重要課題。
內部研發是IC設計業的核心競爭力，且專利數是常被衡量內部研發能力的重要指標，過往研究的專利數有受限於地區的問題，因此本研究重新定義「全球專利數」去探討IC設計公司專利佈局之研發效率。
本研究主旨為探討台灣IC設計公司的研發效率，使用無導向(non-oriented)的EBM(epsilon-based measure)模型且設定生產過程為變動規模報酬(VRS)去評估2016年至2020年台灣20家IC設計公司，選取研究發展費用、員工人數、非流動資產為投入項目，全球專利數和營業收入淨額為產出項目。
研究結果顯示（一）五年內台灣20家IC設計公司的平均研發效率為0.62，其中力旺和晶豪科的研發績效最好，而研發績效末三名依序為盛群、智原、威盛；（二）大部分IC設計公司最需改善全球專利數的產出，而矽智財公司需專注研究發展費用的使用效率；（三）在COVID-19疫情下，非流動資產和員工人數的效率得分明顯下降，但研究發展費用的效率得分變動不大。

Semiconductor market demand has grown again due to ICAC5, which represents IoT, Cloud, AI, Car, and 5G. Due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic at the end of 2019, remote work and distance learning have also greatly increased the demand for terminal electronic products. In the semiconductor industry chain, the upstream IC design industry has benefited the most. Semiconductor companies continue to increase capital expenditures in the face of market prosperity, but also face the dilemma of talent shortages, so accurate performance evaluation is very important for IC design industry.
Internal R&D is the core competitiveness of the IC design industry, and the number of patents is often an important indicator of internal R&D capabilities. The number of patents in previous studies is limited by regional issues. Therefore, this study redefines "the number of global patents" to discuss the R&D efficiency of the patent portfolio of IC design companies.
The purpose of research is to explore the R&D efficiency of Taiwan IC design companies, using the variable returns-to-scale and non-oriented EBM (Epsilon-Based Measure) DEA model to evaluate twenty Taiwan IC design companies from 2016 to 2020. This study selects R&D expenses, number of employees, and non-current assets as input items, and number of global patents and net operating income as output items.
The research results show that the average R&D efficiency is 0.62 over a 5-year period. eMemory and ESMT have the best R&D performance. This study also finds most IC design companies have a lot of room of improvement on the number of global patents, and intellectual property (IP) companies have to focus on the efficiency of R&D expenses. Moreover, the Coronavirus disease in 2020 has caused a decline in the efficiency of non-current assets and the efficiency of employees but it has little effect on the R&D expenses efficiency.

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