Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said its subsidiary TSMC Japan 3DIC R&D Center has completed construction of its clean room in the Tsukuba Center of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology.
The center was established in Japan’s Ibaraki Prefecture in March last year to pursue research into the next generations of 3D silicon stacking and advanced packaging technologies in materials science, the chipmaker said in a statement.
The Japanese government is to provide an unspecified subsidy for the center.
Photo courtesy of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co
The new technologies would enable system-level innovations to enhance computing performance and integrate more functionality, opening a new path for driving semiconductor technology forward in addition to the industry’s conventional path of shrinking transistor size, TSMC said.
With the completion of the clean room, the TSMC Japan 3DIC R&D Center is to support research and development of state-of-the-art 3D IC packaging material in collaboration with its Japanese partners, domestic research institutes and universities possessing strengths in semiconductor materials and equipment, the statement said.
“Beginning with our foundry business model, TSMC has always believed that by focusing on what we do best, each of us in the semiconductor field can maximize our contribution to pushing technology forward,” TSMC chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said in the statement.
“The Japan 3DIC R&D Center is a perfect example of this collaboration in action. By bringing TSMC together with Japanese talent, we will empower each other to make breakthroughs together,” he said.
“We are witnessing an increase in structural demand driven by the megatrends of 5G and high-performance computing-related applications, and further technology innovation will be needed to meet this demand,” TSMC Japan 3DIC R&D Center vice president and general manager Yutaka Emoto said in the statement.
“Japan has many companies with functional materials and key technologies that are important in the global semiconductor supply chain, and TSMC will continue to work on semiconductor process innovation through joint research and development with them,” he said.
“At the same time, we can serve as a bridge between our partners at the 3DIC R&D Center and the world-class semiconductor companies among TSMC’s customers,” he said.
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