EDA Tech Forum

Half a century in semiconductors has taught TSMC chief Morris Chang that you need to constantly refine your business model

In his early days in the semiconductor industry,

Morris Chang

Morris Chang was one of the “non-Texans” to Texas Instruments and was a manager struggling with the question of how to get individual transistor yields to somewhere around three or even four per cent. One of his colleagues – another immigrant to the Lone Star state – was a young engineer named Jack Kilby, who would often pop into Dr. Chang’s for a coffee, a gossip and a chat about this idea he had about integrating multiple transistors in a single circuit.

“I thought it was very impractical,” admits Dr. Chang today – and given his job responsibilities then, it is easy to see why.

A little over half-a-century later, it is still very much part of Dr. Chang’s role to assess what is and what is not practical from a manufacturing point of view. As chairman and CEO of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), he leads not only the world’s largest foundry but also – PCs aside – the world’s largest manufacturer of chips for consumer devices. His life is defined by the ability to deliver cutting edge processes and make a reasonable return.