Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design.
TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said.
The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers, including Apple Inc, Nvidia Corp and AMD Inc, it said.
The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-density, high-performance and energy-efficient chips with a focus on automotive, industrial, artificial intelligence and Internet-of-Things applications, De Bot said.
TSMC is building a new chip manufacturing fab in Dresden, Germany, with its customers Robert Bosch GmbH, Infineon Technologies AG and NXP Semiconductors NV through a joint venture called European Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (ESMC).
ESMC would invest more than 10 billion euros (US$11.3 billion) toward building the fab, with the EU also providing funds.
The creation of ESMC marks a significant step toward construction of a 12-inch fab to support demand from the fast-growing automotive and industrial sectors, the chipmaker said in 2023.
The planned fab is to produce 12-inch wafers using TSMC’s 28-nanometer and 22-nanometer process technologies, it said.
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