Japan's wooing of TSMC pays off with $7bn chip plant
TOKYO -- A new Japanese chip plant in the works by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is the product of a long-standing relationship between the world's largest foundry and a country seeking to regain its clout in the global semiconductor industry.
TSMC looks to build the $7 billion plant in western Japan's Kumamoto Prefecture in collaboration with Sony Group and other partners. The Taiwanese contract manufacturer's ongoing collaboration with Japan led it to choose the country despite overtures from several others.
This partnership took a large step forward in 2019 when the University of Tokyo formed an alliance with TSMC.
The two sides built a cooperative framework for developing leading-edge semiconductors that will be used for artificial intelligence. TSMC offered its prototyping service, and the University of Tokyo tapped the company's platform for designing chips. The pair exchanged technicians expert in cutting-edge areas of materials science, physics and chemistry.
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While the front-end process involves forming circuit patterns on wafers, the back end cuts the wafers into chips, connects chips to electrodes and packages them in polymers. Japanese manufacturers hold an advantage when it comes to materials and new equipment used in back-end processes.
Japan deepened its relationship with TSMC because the nation possesses the world's leading production technology concerning logic semiconductors. The advancement of chips, as well as R&D in peripheral industries, is closely tied to production tech.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Tech/Semiconductors/Japan-s-wooing-of-TSMC-pays-off-with-7bn-chip-plant
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