The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday broke ground on the Industrial Technology Research Institute’s advanced semiconductor research and development (R&D) base in Hsinchu County’s Jhudong Township (竹東).
The NT$3.772 billion (US$119.56 million) base is a joint project with the National Development Council and the National Science and Technology Council as part of the government’s Chip-based Industrial Innovation Program, the ministry said.
The base would house pilot production lines for advanced semiconductor processes, submicron sensing chips and advanced packaging, as well as laboratories for inspection, measurement and verification, it said.
Photo: CNA
It is scheduled for completion by the end of next year, with phased operations beginning in the first quarter of 2028, the ministry said.
Once operational, the base would offer three core services — pilot verification for innovative integrated circuit (IC) designs, development of advanced semiconductor manufacturing processes, and localized verification of equipment and materials, it said.
The ministry expects the new facility to lower validation barriers for small and medium-sized IC design firms and start-ups, helping them bring their products to market.
The base could shorten product development time for firms by about 30 percent, it said.
It would also strengthen the competitiveness of domestic materials and equipment suppliers, and enable early deployment of cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) chips, silicon photonics, quantum computing and next-generation memory chips, reinforcing Taiwan’s critical position in the global semiconductor industry, the ministry said.
Amid shifting geopolitics and global supply-chain restructuring, the key for Taiwan to stay ahead globally is strengthening R&D resilience and maintaining technological autonomy, which the new base would greatly support, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said at the groundbreaking ceremony.
Kung said the new base would primarily serve small and medium-sized firms, start-ups, and domestic equipment and materials suppliers. It would allow small-batch, customized testing of new materials, equipment and processes, shortening R&D cycles and accelerating commercialization to make the industrial ecosystem more complete and resilient, he said.
The base would provide R&D and pilot production services for 28-nanomater to 90-nanometer nodes, and integrate chip design, manufacturing, packaging and testing into a one-stop service. It aims to help local firms achieve breakthroughs and support AI applications across industries, Kung said.
The ministry expects the base to provide more forward-looking research on AI chips, silicon photonics and quantum technologies, serving as a core engine for digital transformation in areas such as smart healthcare, autonomous vehicles and factory automation.
Kung especially thanked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) for supporting the establishment of the R&D base.
Yesterday’s ceremony was attended by Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) and National Science and Technology Council Minister Wu Cheng-wen (吳誠文), as well as representatives from major semiconductor firms.
Elon Musk’s lieutenants have reached out to chip industry suppliers, including Applied Materials Inc, Tokyo Electron Ltd and Lam Research Corp, for his envisioned Terafab, early steps in an audacious and likely arduous attempt to break into the production of cutting-edge chips. Staff working for the joint venture between Tesla Inc and Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) have sought price quotes and delivery times for an array of chipmaking gear, people familiar with the matter said. In past weeks, they’ve contacted makers of photomasks, substrates, etchers, depositors, cleaning devices, testers and other tools, according to the people, who asked not to
NO SHORTCUTS: Asked about Elon Musk’s Terafab initiative, TSMC CEO C.C. Wei said it takes two to three years to build a fab and another one to two to ramp it up Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday raised its revenue growth forecast for this year to above 30 percent, up from the 25 percent it estimated three months earlier, citing extremely robust artificial intelligence (AI)-related chip demand. “Our customers and customers’ customers, who are mainly cloud service providers, continue to send us very positive signals and outlook,” TSMC chairman and CEO C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at an earnings conference. The company also hiked its capital expenditure for this year toward the higher end of its forecast, or US$56 billion, as it aims to step up advanced chip capacity expansions, such as
The founder of Chinese property giant Evergrande Group (恆大集團) has pleaded guilty to charges of fraud and bribery, a court said yesterday, the latest blow for what was once the country’s leading developer. Evergrande’s rise was propelled by decades of rapid urbanization and rising living standards, but in 2020, its access to credit dramatically narrowed when the government introduced curbs on excessive borrowing and speculation. The company defaulted in 2021 after struggling to repay creditors. Founder Xu Jiayin (許家印), 67, known as Hui Ka Yan in Cantonese, was reportedly held by police in 2023, with Evergrande saying he had been subjected to
Taiwan is attracting a growing number of foreign jobseekers as companies increasingly recruit overseas talent to ease labor shortages and expand global reach, recruitment platform 104 Job Bank (104人力銀行) said yesterday. More than 40,000 foreign nationals searched for jobs in Taiwan through the platform last year, a 28 percent increase from a year earlier, the company said. Malaysians accounted for the largest share of overseas jobseekers at 12.2 percent, followed by Indonesians at 11.9 percent and Vietnamese at 10.8 percent. Indonesian applicants surged more than 50 percent year-on-year, while Vietnamese jobseekers rose by more than 30 percent. Applicants from the
RSS