Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has won the Corporate Innovation Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) for its leadership in 7-nanometer semiconductor foundry technology, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker said yesterday.
“TSMC’s technology leadership, paired with its foundry business model, meant that TSMC’s 7-nanometer technology marked the first time that the world’s most advanced logic technology was available to the entire semiconductor industry as an open platform,” TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) said in a statement.
Liu thanked the institute for recognizing TSMC with the award.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
“It gives us further inspiration to continue finding new ways to unleash our customers’ innovations,” Liu said.
Since TSMC’s 7-nanometer technology entered volume production in April 2018, it has manufactured more than 1 billion dies to make hundreds of products for dozens of customers, the company said.
In the context of integrated circuits, a die is a small block of semiconducting material on which a functional circuit is fabricated.
The 7-nanometer technology has enabled IC designers to deliver innovations that would not otherwise be possible in critical technology areas such as artificial intelligence, data centers, advanced driver assistance systems, high-performance computing, 5G communications and smartphones, the statement said.
To support its customers with the broadest and most advanced portfolio of technologies, the firm invests about 8 percent of its revenue in research and development, devoting US$2.96 billion last year to areas including advanced logic processes, 3D IC system integration solutions and specialty processes, TSMC said.
Building on the successful 7-nanometer platform, TSMC brought its 5-nanometer process into mass production this year, and volume production of 3-nanometer semiconductors is scheduled to begin in 2022, the company said.
The New York-based IEEE has more than 400,000 members from 160 countries.
The IEEE Corporate Innovation Award, established in 1985, is presented annually to an industrial, governmental or academic entity, or other corporate body, to recognize outstanding and exemplary contributions in an IEEE field of interest.
Separately, the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區) on Monday honored TSMC founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) and three other technology pioneers for their contribution to Taiwan’s industrial development.
Hsinchu Science Park director general Wayne Wang (王永壯) said that a ceremony would be held on Tuesday next week to honor Chang, Acer Inc (宏碁) founder Stan Shih (施振榮), United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) founder Robert Tsao (曹興誠) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) founder Tsai Ming-kai (蔡明介).
The ceremony is part of the 40th anniversary celebrations of the Hsinchu Science Park, which houses many of Taiwan’s major electronics exporting companies, including those of the four honorees, Wang said.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
RSS