Taiwanese authorities have opened a national-security-related inquiry involving a former TSMC R&D executive who may have passed the company's trade secrets to a foreign company. The person in question is Wei-Jen Lo, according to a spokesperson for the High Prosecutors Office, who spoke to Nikkei Asia. Yet, for now the investigation is focused on finding out whether there was an intentional or unlawful transfer of TSMC's trade secrets to a foreign entity.
Wei-Jen Lo, a long-time executive at TSMC and Intel, this year retired from the Taiwanese foundry giant after spending 21 years at the company and building one of the strongest semiconductor R&D teams in the industry. However, instead of enjoying life, he unexpectedly surfaced at Intel in late October. Furthermore, he allegedly took a large collection of confidential materials related to TSMC's leading-edge process technologies with him, reports Liberty Times. Keep in mind that we are dealing with unofficial information, and both Intel and TSMC have declined to comment on the matter.
Wei-Jen Lo reportedly rejoined Intel as 'vice president of R&D' in late October, about three months after departing TSMC, according to a TrendForce report. But before leaving TSMC, Lo allegedly used his authority as the senior vice president of corporate strategy development to instruct subordinates to provide him copies of restricted technical documents covering TSMC's N2, A16, A14, and post-A14 process technologies and their derivatives, according to Liberty Times. Since Lo was a high-ranking executive, such requests appeared routine, so no internal security flags were raised at the time, Liberty Times asserts.
If the report from Liberty Times is to be believed, then Wei-Jen Lo is responsible for 'advanced equipment and module development from R&D up to pre-mass-production' at Intel, which does not look like a description of a 'VP of R&D' position. However, if the information is correct, it essentially means he is overseeing new production equipment and process modules before they are handed over to full-scale production. At first glance, such responsibilities may be too low for a VP as large chipmakers tend to have 'module owner,' or 'process owner,' responsible for a particular line of work within a broader process technology development process. However, as equipment tuning and the right tool settings are incredibly important for semiconductor performance and yields, Intel might establish a position overseeing new fab tools before they are used for mass production.
If this is indeed the case, could TSMC's secret documents covering the company's N2, A16, A14, and post-A14 process technologies help Wei-Jen Lo and Intel? Hardly. Intel's 18A process technology is already in mass production, and only Intel engineers can tune it to get lower defect density, improve CD uniformity, etc.
Furthermore, 18A is different from both N2 and A16 across so many aspects (e.g., 18A uses pattern shaping, N2 does not, A16 uses Super Power Rail backside power delivery that connects power directly to each transistor's source and drain, 18A's PowerVia delivers power to transistor contacts) that TSMC's experience is hardly significantly valuable for Intel's engineers, but is valuable for the company's competitive analysis team. As for information about more sophisticated nodes, Intel's 14A and TSMC's A14 will again be very different, as the former plans to use High-NA EUV lithography tools for critical layers, whereas the latter will rely on Low-NA EUV litho tools and multipatterning.
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Lo's departure was originally treated as a celebratory milestone. TSMC held a farewell event honoring his 21 years of service, and after leaving, he received the ITRI Fellow distinction, presented in person by Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim. Since TSMC believed he was retiring, it appears he was not asked to sign a non-compete agreement, a customary requirement for departing executives that expressly forbids employment at competing firms for 18 months, with half-salary compensation. However, now TSMC is reportedly investigating whether Lo indeed took trade secrets with him.
Most recently, Wei-Jen Lo served as senior vice president, overseeing technology development within the R&D organization at TSMC. He joined the company in 2004, initially taking charge of Operations II as a vice president. From 2006 through 2009, he led the R&D division, after which he transitioned into a role managing the firm’s Advanced Technology Business along with manufacturing-technology operations. Under his leadership, his organization has accumulated over 1,500 patents worldwide, including approximately 1,000 filed in the United States.
Before moving to TSMC, Dr. Lo held senior technical and production roles at Intel, including oversight of the company's development site in Santa Clara between 1997 and 2000, according to The Org. His earlier career included teaching at an American university and research positions at Motorola's R&D organization and the Xerox Microelectronics Center.
Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.
