A Taiwanese government official said at a press conference that a special team would be deployed to protect TSMC’s technology and trade secrets as it expands to the United States. Sources close to the company have reportedly said that the company’s fab in the US is always one generation behind the report’s fab in Taiwan. Digi Times.
Taiwan’s government plans to deploy a team to oversee TSMC’s key technologies, which are an important part of the nation’s interests, according to a report by a minister at Taiwan’s National Science and Technology Commission (NSTC). Tsung-Tsong Wu said.
It is unclear how this team will operate, and whether Taiwan will require TSMC to deploy enhanced security measures or seek to restrict exports of certain process technologies and know-how to the United States. However, the minister made it clear that the government wants Taiwan to remain TSMC’s hub. A global center for contract chip production.
In fact, TSMC itself will keep its cutting-edge production technology in Taiwan. The company’s Fab 21 in Arizona will use TSMC’s N5 (5 nm class) manufacturing process to manufacture chips when it comes online in early 2024. By then, TSMC’s manufacturing facility at Southern Taiwan Science Park near Tainan will be mass-producing chips at TSMC’s N3. (3nm class) manufacturing technology. Additionally, TSMC’s Taiwanese fab will manufacture chips at his N2 node when the second phase of Fab 21 (N3 ready) goes live by 2026.
“TSMC’s U.S. presence will continue to follow the N minus 1 principle,” said a person close to the company. financial times Earlier this week. Other sources say the US fab will be used to manufacture chips specifically for applications used in the US defense industry supply chain.
However, the know-how that TSMC should protect is not limited to the process technology itself. The world’s #1 foundry doesn’t seem to have a program like Intel’s Copy Exactly. It deploys best-known manufacturing techniques in various fabs around the world to ensure maximum yield. So the US fab is slightly different than the Taiwan fab and may not offer the same yield rate as Taiwan. While TSMC wants to protect fab-specific yield improvement technology, the Taiwanese government tends to retain know-how that is applicable to local fabs in Taiwan.
