TSMC and its history! Only genius can find another genius!!

Welcome to 2024! First question: How many of you have heard of Kuo-Ting, or Kwoh-Ting Li, or KT Li? Ok, Morris Chang? Alright, TSMC?

In Nov. 2023, Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) founder, Dr. Morris Chang, became the recipient of the first KT Li Award. In 1976, he was invited to Taiwan by Chinese Institute of Engineers. Then, KT Li gave him three choices: president of the Industrial Technology Research Institute, technology advisor to premiere, or venture capital enterprise. Salary was the same for each one.

KT Li. Courtesy: Taipei Times.

From 1985 onward, how to go about establishing Taiwan Semiconductor’s business model was Dr. Chang’s idea. Its promotion, and convincing Taiwan government to invest half of the funds was Li’s problem. “Without his backing, Taiwan Semiconductor would not exist,” said Dr. Chang. “There would be no TSMC, if not for Li Kwoh-Ting”.

KT Li was instrumental in setting up Industrial Technology and Research Institute (ITRI), and Hsinchu Science Park in Taiwan. In 1970s, he consulted Frederick Terman (founder of US Silicon Valley) on “how Taiwan could emulate Silicon Valley’s success? Terman’s advice to Li was to use skilled Taiwanese immigrants in the US. Incidentally, TSMC CEO and vice chairman, CC Wei, will succeed Mark Liu, who will be retiring this year.

Long story short: it needs genius to uncover genius! It takes great strength, future vision, and resolve to develop something unbeatable, like TSMC! KT Li was the godfather of technology in Taiwan! He was the ‘father’ of Taiwan’s economic miracle. He marked out Morris Chang as his successor! Look, how they have delivered!!

TSMC’s Dr. Chang, Tsai Ming-Kai of MediaTek, and brothers Jason and Richard Chang of ASE, are all from Taiwan. So is UMC founder and former chairman Robert Tsao, and Yeh Nan-Horng, founder and former chairman, Realtek. Winbond Electronics is controlled by family of Arthur Yu-Cheng Chiao.

Powerchip has Frank Huang as its founder. Hon Hai Technology Group or Foxconn was founded by Terry Gou. Inventec was founded by Kou-I Yeh. Rock Hsu is chairman at Compal. Simon Lin is chairman at Wistron. Raymond Soong is founder and chairman at Liteon Group. AUO has Frank Ko as CEO.

All these companies — TSMC, ASE, UMC, Realtek, Winbond, Powerchip, AUO, Hon Hai, Inventec, Compal, Wistron, Liteon, MediaTek, are among the most elite companies of the world. Really, there are no prizes for guessing how Taiwan built itself, and its brand, into a silicon island!

Likewise, Dr. Kim Choong-Ki, emeritus professor, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), was first in South Korea to teach semiconductor engineering. Look, where the likes of Samsung and SK Hynix have reached today!

For the record, William Bradford Shockley Jr. is said to be the father of semiconductors in the USA. Later, the “traitorous eight”, from Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory resigned after Shockley decided not to continue research into silicon-based semiconductors. Julius Blank, Victor Grinich, Jean Hoerni, Eugene Kleiner, Jay Last, Gordon Moore, Robert Noyce, and Sheldon Roberts. In August 1957, they reached an agreement with Sherman Fairchild, and Fairchild Semiconductor was born. Gordon Moore later went on to define Moore’s Law!

Jun-ichi Nishizawa is considered the father of microelectronics in Japan. Shuji Nakamura is a Japanese-born American electronic engineer and inventor of the blue LED. It pays to know your history! 😉

TrendForce reported at end of 2023, top 10 IC design houses had ridden wave of seasonal consumer demand. Continued AI boom could see 17.8 percent increase in 3Q23. DDR6 RAM will likely be in testing phase of production in 2024, and be available some time in 2026. World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) revised forecast, stating decline in global semiconductor market of 9.4 percent in 2023, at $520 billion. It will be followed by robust recovery, with estimated growth of 13.1 percent in 2024, reaching $588 billion.

At IEDM 2023, TSMC announced aim to integrate over 1 trillion transistors in 3D packaged, and 200 billion transistors in monolithic chips by 2030. Intel announced similar plans to build processor with 1 trillion transistors by 2030.

All of this should be great news for the global semiconductor industry. I repeat: chips were, and are, the heart of everything that runs today! TSMC reportedly showed N2 or 2nm prototypes to Apple and Nvidia. Samsung and Intel follow close behind. TSMC has 66 percent of global foundry market, and Samsung 25 percent, as per TrendForce.

Elsewhere, in China, former Mentor Graphics (now, Siemens EDA) employee, Liguo Zhang, started SEIDA, from Oct. 2021. SEIDA aims to sell EDA tools across China. It is reported that SEIDA aims to sell microchip design software tool, known by initials, OPC, used in designing microchips, and advanced chips. The US government has constantly increased efforts to curb China’s access to EDA tools.

India still hasn’t learnt its lesson. Inviting companies to invest is one thing. It’s always good to have global brands coming into the country, as they do elsewhere. But, having a local company get into the game is quite another! Here, India continues to fall short. Also, it is easy to transfer technology. Instead, India can work on developing variants, if it so wishes. Remember, Micron is a leading memory player, well behind the Koreans. Again, it will take one genius to find another genius. One hopes India is able to do that!