Imec to Honor TSMC Chairman Dr. Morris Chang with “Lifetime of Innovation Award”

Imec’s Award Recognizes the Pioneer of the Dedicated Foundry Business Model and Honors the Profound Impact of Dr. Chang on the Global Semiconductor Industry

World-leading nano-electronics research center imec has announced that it will award Dr. Morris Chang, founding chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Limited (TSMC), the world's first and largest semiconductor foundry, with a lifetime of innovation award. With his pioneering vision and founding of TSMC, Dr. Chang enabled the rapid growth of the fabless sector and changed the landscape of the semiconductor industry. Imec’s award recognizes Dr. Chang’s profound and unparalleled impact on the global semiconductor industry, and will be presented to him in person on June 23, in Belgium at imec’s annual Imec Technology Forum in Brussels.

Dr. Chang founded TSMC in 1987 as a company solely dedicated to manufacturing chips according to customers’ designs. By not competing with customers, TSMC enabled entrepreneurs to build world-class businesses around designing and marketing chips without the need of a manufacturing facility. By partnering for manufacturing capabilities, fabless companies can avoid the mammoth costs of operating their own semiconductor fabrication facility and focus on innovation of the circuits while leaving the manufacturing and yield challenges to their partners in foundry, and thereby accelerating innovation according to market needs. It is the world’s largest dedicated independent semiconductor foundry, and many of today’s largest high-tech companies can link their success directly to their partnership with TSMC.

“Chairman Chang is immensely respected in the global semiconductor community for his innovative vision and tireless drive to shape the future of technology,” stated Luc Van den hove, president and CEO at imec. “Innovation is the cornerstone of economic growth and imec, as the nucleus of the global semiconductor industry for joint R&D on advanced technologies, is a proud partner of TSMC. We are greatly honored to welcome Chairman Chang to Belgium and to present him with this award, representing imec’s and its partners’ gratitude, respect, admiration and appreciation.”

Imec and TSMC have a long and fruitful history of collaboration. Since 2005, TSMC is one of the core partners in imec’s industrial affiliation program on advanced CMOS technologies. Imec’s unique research platform harnesses the collective expertise and knowledge of the entire value chain, bringing together foundries, IDMs, fabless and fab-lite companies, packaging and assembly companies, and equipment and material suppliers, to drive innovation and the development of new, competitive products. Other strategic CMOS partners include Intel, Samsung, Globalfoundries, Micron, SK Hynix, Toshiba/Sandisk, Qualcomm, Huawei, Panasonic, Sony ... TSMC’s commitment to imec was extended in 2009 by the establishment of TSMC’s European R&D facility at the imec campus, benefiting from imec’s state-of-the-art semiconductor cleanroom facility. Imec and its partners, in turn, benefit from TSMC’s broad-based technology roadmap and platform expertise, its customers, suppliers, and ecosystem partners. Other highlights in the collaboration between imec and TSMC are the appointment of imec as a TSMC value chain aggregator for Europe, enabling imec to offer TSMC technology on a multiproject wafer basis to European companies and academia through imec’s Europractice IC services, and imec to become a VCA of TSMC for the Indian market in 2013.

About Imec Technology Forum

Imec Technology Forum (ITF) is imec’s premier technology event, organized annually in Brussels (Belgium). ITF gathers experts and visionaries to discuss the future in technology. ITF Brussels is the flagship of imec’s worldwide ITF events. This year’s tour includes ITF USA, ITF Japan, ITF Korea, and ITF Taiwan. ITF Brussels 2015 takes place on June 23-24, 2015. ITF Brussels offers two days packed with exclusive keynotes, insightful presentations and networking opportunities. This year's ITF theme is: “For the builders of tomorrow – towards smart living”.

Confirmed top speakers from the global semiconductor, ICT, and healthcare industry are: Morris Chang - Founding Chairman, TSMC, Lip-Bu Tan - President & CEO, Cadence Design Systems, Padmasree Warrior - Chief Technology & Strategy Officer, Cisco, Peter Wennink - President & CEO, ASML, Simon Segars - CEO ARM, Robin Murdoch - Global Managing Director, Managing & Social, Accenture, Martin Anstice - CEO, LAM Research, Jean-Marc Chery - COO, STMicroelectronics, Caroline Hillegeer - Senior Vice President Strategy & Technology, GDF SUEZ, Babak Parviz - Vice President, Amazon.com, Tim Harris - Director Applied Physics, Janelia Farm, William Yang - President & CEO, BaySpec, Steven Nietvelt - Chief Innovation Marketing Officer, Cartamundi, Cees Links - Founder & CEO, Greenpeak, Stephen Turner - Founder & CTO, Pacific Biosciences, Meg Doherty - Coordinator of Treatment & Care in the Dept. of HIV/AIDS, WHO, Koenraad Debackere - Managing Director KU Leuven LRD & General Manager KU Leuven, Joost Wille - R&D Director, Sioen Industries, Rudi Pauwels - CEO, Biocartis, Eric Van Zele - President & CEO, Barco, Phillip Vandervoort - Chief Consumer Market Officer, Proximus, Geert Palmers - CEO, 3E, ...

More information: www.itf2015.be/brussels

About imec

Imec performs world-leading research in nanoelectronics and photovoltaics. Imec leverages its scientific knowledge with the innovative power of its global partnerships in ICT, healthcare and energy. Imec delivers industry-relevant technology solutions. In a unique high-tech environment, its international top talent is committed to providing the building blocks for a better life in a sustainable society. Imec is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, and has offices in the Netherlands, Taiwan, US, China, India and Japan. Its staff of over 2,080 people includes more than 670 industrial residents and guest researchers. In 2013, imec’s revenue (P&L) totaled 332 million euro. Further information on imec can be found at www.imec.be. Stay up to date about what’s happening at imec with the monthly imec magazine, available for tablets and smartphones (as an app for iOS and Android), or via the website www.imec.be/imecmagazine
Imec is a registered trademark for the activities of IMEC International (a legal entity set up under Belgian law as a “stichting van openbaar nut”), imec Belgium (IMEC vzw supported by the Flemish Government), imec the Netherlands (Stichting IMEC Nederland, part of Holst Centre which is supported by the Dutch Government), imec Taiwan (IMEC Taiwan Co.) and imec China (IMEC Microelectronics (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.) and imec India (Imec India Private Limited).

About TSMC

TSMC is the world’s largest dedicated semiconductor foundry, providing the industry’s leading process technology and the foundry segment’s largest portfolio of process-proven libraries, IPs, design tools and reference flows. The Company’s owned capacity in 2014 was 8.2 million 12-inch equivalent wafers, including capacity from three advanced 12-inch GIGAFAB™ facilities (Fab 12, Fab 14, and Fab 15), four eight-inch fabs (Fab 3, Fab 5, Fab 6 and Fab 8), one six-inch fab (Fab 2), as well as TSMC’s wholly owned subsidiaries, WaferTech and TSMC China. TSMC is the first foundry to provide 20nm and 16nm production capabilities. TSMC’s corporate headquarters are in Hsinchu, Taiwan. For more information about TSMC please visit http://www.tsmc.com.