TSMC : Foundry Watch

　By Dr. F. C. Tseng
　Deputy CEO

Collaborative Partnership

　 I know this is going to sound strange coming from a company like TSMC that is renowned for its technology leadership, but the key to success at 90-nm and below is behavioral, not technical.

　To be sure, the issues surrounding nanometer success are technical and well known. Power - leakage and static - will be an issue. Technical too is the issue of increasing design complexity, a slowdown in Moore's law, and the intertwining of the device design process technology and backend technology, including test and package. And, it is precisely the technical nature of these issues that will drive the requisite change in behavior. Let me explain further.

　The traditional supply chain model - or the supply chain as we currently know it -- is sequential in nature.

　That is to say that the chip designers and EDA vendors dialog over point tool solutions; that foundry and library and IP vendors integrate the basic building blocks; and that foundries and backend providers work together on yield improvement programs. This process is not just sequential, it is also reactive and local.

　What is required here is not new technology; if anything new technology would make matters worse, not better. What is required here is a more in-depth interaction among all parties in the supply chain. The new supply chain model must be a collaborative model with all parties interacting with one another, not just interacting with the next party in the sequential chain. Not only must the new supply chain model become collaborative, it must become concurrent, pro-active and globally optimized.

　Of course, every new model requires tools to make it work. Some collaborative tools that TSMC brings to the table are Reference Flow 5.0, the industry's largest portfolio of silicon-validated library and IP functions, and TSMC-Online tools for design engineering and logistics collaboration.

　But all the technology and all the tools in the world are not going to resolve the daunting nanometer challenges. What needs to change is not just the tools, or the toolbox, or the supply chain players, but the mind set of the individuals wielding the tools, using the toolbox and interacting with the supply chain players.

　What will be required to generate nanometer success is throwing out old sequential models. Early and close interaction between foundry and customers - both in technology definition and development phase - is what will be come the required foundation for a collaborative partnership that will generate nanometer success.