The National Science Council (NSC,
Taiwan experiences an annual shortfall of 2,000 engineers for the semi-conductor industry. The NSC announced in early December that it would establish new facilities as part of the National Nano Device Laboratories (NDL,
However, NSC member Lee Yuan-tseh (
Speeding the project up would however cause a budget problem since only NT$300 million has been allocated to the project in its first two years. Lee suggested that this may be overcome by coordinating government efforts with those of semiconductor devices manufacturers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC,
Other NSC officials endorsed Lee's idea of looking to the private sector to make up the budget shortfall.
"Although it is a forward-looking research center focusing on research and development, the NDL is certainly the most powerful supporter of the semiconductor industry" said said NSC chairman Huang Chen-tai (
We hope the industry would finance personnel training project at NDL," Huang said.
According to the NSC, NDL's research and development efforts are mainly associated with silicon-based semiconductor devices and materials with a special focus on deep sub-micron metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) devices. After the fulfillment of 100nm device technologies in 1999 by adopting Germany Leica's Electron Beam Lithography facilities, the development of 70 nm device technologies is underway.
NDL Director Simon Sze (施敏) stressed yesterday that semiconductor professionals would play a key role in maintaining Taiwan's competitiveness in the future because Taiwan-made semiconductors would account for 10 percent of global output in value, costing more than US$60 billion dollars. Future investment in the industry in Taiwan in next ten years would be more than US$50 billion, Sze estimated.
"Once new laboratories were built, more than 1,000 semiconductor professionals would join the market every year to develop the semiconductor field," Sze said.
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