How did TSMC get so good?

The massive image: By now, we’re all acquainted with the truth that TSMC is, by far, probably the most succesful semiconductor producer on the planet, with all of the entails for the business and geopolitics. And as this actuality units in, many individuals have been asking us how did they get so good?

There are a lot of good histories of this course of, the latest of which is Chris Miller’s Chip Wars (which is superb), that cowl the narrative of TSMC’s rise, however we expect the query actually goes to deeper fundamentals. What capabilities does TSMC have that others lack? And may anybody else construct these? Not surprisingly, there is no such thing as a easy reply to this query, however we expect there are a number of elements that basically stand out.

Editor’s Be aware:
Visitor writer Jonathan Goldberg is the founding father of D2D Advisory, a multi-functional consulting agency. Jonathan has developed progress methods and alliances for firms within the cellular, networking, gaming, and software program industries.

You will need to perceive that a lot of TSMC’s present benefit rests in intangibles. Everybody else should purchase the identical tools. And their success just isn’t the results of one genius. China’s SMIC has poached tons of of TSMC workers through the years, to no avail. Neither is the reply capital — constructing a complicated fab is extremely costly, however many international locations have sunk huge fortunes into futile makes an attempt.

TSMC’s benefit rests in years of studying and course of improvement

TSMC’s benefit rests in years of studying and course of improvement. They know learn how to put together chip designs for manufacturing, construct them, and most significantly repair the inevitable bugs that seem. Most significantly, they’re able to seize and retain all this studying, to allow them to do all of this at immense scale, repeatedly.

To be honest, TSMC has gotten an immense enhance from the federal government of Taiwan. The federal government supplied direct subsidies permitting TSMC to buy the most effective machines accessible. This was extremely necessary within the early days of the corporate, however remained necessary for lengthy afterwards. As we are going to see, an enormous a part of this story is the longevity and time scale of TSMC’s progress.

A second necessary issue has been the suppression of the New Taiwan Greenback. The NTD has traded at roughly a 30% low cost to the US greenback for the reason that 1990’s. Everybody is aware of this, however the US authorities has by no means acted on this foreign money manipulation, largely as an effort to assist a regional ally — take a look at Brad Setser’s work for extra on this.

Some will argue that this isn’t necessary – TSMC costs all gross sales in {dollars}, and its largest expense, its tools, is all denominated in US {dollars} as nicely. However that overlooks human capital. The majority of TSMC’s workers are primarily based in Taiwan, and paid in NT, so the corporate is afforded a large low cost on their salaries.

All these intangibles we talked about above are captured within the firm’s human capital, which the corporate has paid at a reduction, which itself has compounded over 20 years. It’s laborious to overstate the significance of something that compounds for that lengthy.

TSMC produces extra silicon wafers than anybody else, by a substantial margin.

Lastly, and maybe most significantly, TSMC produces extra silicon wafers than anybody else, by a substantial margin. Follow results in enchancment and TSMC will get extra apply than anybody else. It could appear counter-intuitive, however semis manufacturing is as a lot artwork as science.

Everybody else can entry the identical machines as TSMC, however when your manufacturing course of is premised on consistently pushing the envelope of what’s attainable, there is no such thing as a handbook to clarify what to do. TSMC’s volumes over the a long time have allowed them to construct all of the processes and information bases wanted to maintain shifting ahead sooner than anybody else. Once more, this issue is self-reinforcing.

TSMC will get to superior nodes earlier than everybody else and thus will get higher yields sooner, affording them the power to advance once more, and once more. This appears summary, however think about that each new chip design goes to come across bugs when it’s first manufactured. The TSMC engineers have possible seen these bugs already and might deal with them rapidly.

All of this gives TSMC not solely with necessary benefits in capabilities, but additionally by way of economics. There are many locations on the planet with the power to supply chips on forefront processes, and provides these lecturers sufficient time they’ll in all probability yield an ideal wafer, however TSMC can get there sooner and in huge quantity.

All of that is to say, that it’s unlikely that anybody can really meet up with TSMC anytime quickly. It took them a long time to construct up these processes. And this helps partially clarify why TSMC is now keen to construct superior fabs exterior Taiwan. They know that their fabs in Arizona and Japan and Germany and wherever are going to stay depending on the corporate’s deep experience again in Taiwan. The US might get a forefront fab, however that doesn’t imply the US can actually do what TSMC does.