Home News TSMC's advanced packaging founder: Yu Zhenhua retires

TSMC's advanced packaging founder: Yu Zhenhua retires

2025-07-21

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TSMC Vice President of Research and Development and Distinguished Technology Fellow Yu Zhenhua officially retires on July 8, 2025.

The legend of TSMC's "Six R&D Knights" has not died out. The "Final Knight" Yu Zhenhua, who is still working at TSMC, has also been highly praised by the semiconductor industry. He has pushed TSMC to the top of the wafer foundry industry.

Yu Zhenhua, known as Doug in the industry, joined TSMC in 1994. From major breakthroughs in copper manufacturing to leading the development of epoch-making advanced packaging technologies such as CoWoS and InFO, he has created countless milestones for Taiwan's semiconductor technology and made far-reaching contributions to TSMC's position as the world's leading wafer foundry.

The industry believes that Yu Zhenhua has made great contributions to TSMC's advanced packaging and heterogeneous system integration processes, especially the CoWoS packaging technology, which is currently the most popular AI technology. After Yu Zhenhua retired, his work was handed over to another vice president, Xu Guojin.

TSMC confirmed that Yu Zhenhua retired. TSMC thanked Yu Zhenhua for his contributions to the company over the years and wished him a happy retirement.

Yu Zhenhua made TSMC's advanced packaging a success

Born in Keelung in 1955, Yu Zhenhua graduated from the Department of Physics of National Tsing Hua University in 1977, obtained a master's degree in materials engineering in 1979, and received a doctorate in materials engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States in 1987. After graduation, he entered the world's most advanced AT&T Bell Laboratories in the United States at that time, and participated in the research and development of process technologies such as single-chip plasma-assisted thin film evaporation and low-power components, starting his semiconductor research career.

Yu Zhenhua returned to Taiwan in 1994 and joined TSMC's R&D department, responsible for the development of key process modules. In 1997, he began to promote the copper wire process, led the establishment of Taiwan's first copper process laboratory, independently developed a 0.18-micron advanced copper process, successfully achieved the generational transition from 150 nanometers to 130 nanometers, and established the industry trend of copper wire replacing aluminum.

Yu Zhenhua has focused on IC back-end process technology and material innovation for many years, and has accumulated more than 190 US and 173 Taiwan patents, covering key areas such as low-dielectric materials, packaging integration technology and advanced processes.

In addition to his technical contributions, Yu Zhenhua is also a key figure in promoting the integration of Taiwan's industrial chain. His 3D chip integration and through silicon via (TSV) technology have driven upstream and downstream manufacturers to invest in 3D chip equipment research and development, further strengthening Taiwan's advanced packaging industry cluster.

Yu Zhenhua has served as TSMC's senior director of advanced wafer process and deputy general manager of advanced packaging technology. He is also TSMC's only "Excellent Technology Fellow". He has long been committed to the research and development of semiconductor packaging and heterogeneous integration systems, spanning multiple fields from wafer process, material science to packaging design. He enjoys a high reputation in the industry and academia.

He has served as co-chairman of IEEE IITC and a steering committee member of the International Assembly and Circuit Board Conference (IMPACT). He is also a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) of the United States and has been awarded the Dr. Morris Chang Innovation Award.

Who is Xu Guojin?

Mr. Xu Guojin graduated from the Department of Physics of National Taiwan University in 1986 and obtained a master's degree in technology management from National Chiao Tung University in 1994.

In terms of work, he served as the general manager of TSMC's 8-inch plant WaferTech in the United States. He resigned in 2015 and joined Micron. He has more than 30 years of experience in the semiconductor industry. Micron recognized that he had served in many senior positions in manufacturing engineering and management, and was good at technology transfer and optimization, improving yield, and increasing the production capacity of new plants. In October of the previous year, he was promoted to Chairman of Micron Taiwan, which further highlighted that he played a vital role in the long-term cooperation between Micron and Taiwan. However, he still bid farewell to Micron and returned to TSMC to take charge of advanced packaging and testing research and development.

According to TSMC's official website, Mr. Xu Guojin is the Vice President of Integrated Interconnect & Packaging at TSMC, responsible for developing TSMC's three-dimensional integrated circuits (3D ICs) and advanced packaging and other system integration technologies.

Before joining TSMC, Mr. Xu Guojin served as the Chairman of Micron Taiwan, responsible for Micron's overall production operations in Taiwan. Mr. Xu Guojin also served as the General Manager of TSMC's first US wafer fab, TSMC Washington, and successfully improved performance to the company's average level. He has more than 30 years of rich experience in the semiconductor industry and has an excellent record in technology transfer and optimization, yield improvement, and increasing new plant capacity.

In a speech last September, Xu Guojin said that after a long period of development, the entire semiconductor industry is now focusing on the development and application of complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) components from the design of different components, and energy saving is a very important advantage of CMOS.

When CMOS became the mainstream of commercial applications, the development of the entire industry, whether in product design or process research and development, has made great leaps and bounds, and the division of labor in the industry and the connection between upstream and downstream have become clearer. Compared with silicon photonic components, it is still in a relatively early stage of flourishing. In the future, with the large-scale calculation applications and data transmission in the AI era, energy consumption will become a very important issue. At this time, the introduction of silicon photonics has become a very important trend for data centers and AI industries.

Xu Guojin pointed out that Taiwan already had a good foundation in the semiconductor industry in the past, so naturally Taiwan must have relative advantages in entering and expanding the field of silicon photonics. At this stage, it is hoped that through the establishment of this silicon photonics industry alliance, everyone can work together to promote the resolution of relevant technical specifications and integrate relevant cooperation to accelerate the development of Taiwan's silicon photonic services. In the future, with the amplification of R&D and manufacturing capabilities, Taiwan has the opportunity to become an important base for the AI technology industry.

The six men behind TSMC's success

In the 30-year history of TSMC, there have been many technical battles against the odds. The most critical one was the 0.130-micron "copper process" battle that defeated IBM with its own technology in 2003, which became famous all over the world and directly pushed TSMC to the top of the world.

The book "Seeing Through TSMC: Building the World's No. 1 Wafer Empire" shows that in 1999, TSMC's revenue was only 15% higher than UMC. In 2005, TSMC's revenue was 2.91 times that of UMC. One of the reasons why TSMC's profitability is higher than UMC is that in terms of R&D, TSMC has a high proportion of 0.11~0.13 micron high-end processes, high average selling prices, and less price competition pressure than mature processes (0.18~0.25 microns). It is understood that 0.13 micron started production in 2000. When the performance of various companies plummeted due to the "Internet bubble", TSMC relied on 0.13 micron to support its performance and significantly increase its market share.

Lin Benjian, Yang Guanglei, Jiang Shangyi, Sun Yuancheng, Liang Mengsong, Yu Zhenhua and others who helped TSMC win this battle and were therefore called the "TSMC R&D Six Knights" have each left a strong and indispensable key mark in the development history of TSMC.

Old photo of TSMC in 2003 Source: I-Chan Magazine

From left to right: Lin Benjian, Yang Guanglei, Chiang Shangyi, Sun Yuancheng, Liang Mengsong, Yu Zhenhua


Overall, the six knights have their own strengths. Among them, Lin Benjian is an international master in the field of optics; Liang Mengsong is an expert in semiconductor process technology; Sun Yuancheng and Yang Guanglei are experts in the integration of the overall logic process and are responsible for improving the yield; Yu Zhenhua is a pioneer in copper process and low-dielectric materials; Chiang Shangyi is the general leader. Perhaps it is because the six knights perform their duties in different fields that TSMC has taken the lead in everything from process miniaturization to advanced packaging.

In the nearly 60 years since Moore's Law was proposed, there have been many bottleneck periods, including aluminum process and the 193nm wavelength of the lithography machine. This time, TSMC's Lin Benjian proposed the "immersion lithography technology" (using water as a medium to directly shorten the wavelength of 193nm light to 134nm), which not only allowed TSMC to leap three technological generations in one go and become a world leader, but also allowed the global semiconductor process to advance by about 14 years, making a great contribution to the advanced process of the global semiconductor industry.

Ben-Jian Lin joined TSMC in 2000. Before joining TSMC, Ben-Jian Lin worked at IBM Watson Laboratory for 22 years and created a number of photolithography technologies including 1 micron, 0.75 micron, and 0.5 micron. In 1975, he made the shortest wavelength of light in photolithography at that time and named it "Deep UV", which is still widely used today and is the mainstream of photolithography development technology.

After joining TSMC, Ben-Jian Lin began to promote immersion lithography technology in 2002, which was undoubtedly a heavy bomb for many semiconductor equipment manufacturers who were focusing on the development of dry lithography technology at that time and had invested billions of dollars in research and development. With Ben-Jian Lin's persistence, TSMC and ASML successfully developed the world's first immersion lithography machine in 2004.

This beautiful turnaround not only allowed TSMC to dominate the industry specifications for the first time, but also made ASML the leader of lithography machines today. Perhaps it is precisely because of this "life-long friendship" that TSMC currently has the largest number and most advanced EUV lithography machines in the world, which also adds wings to its fixed increase and expansion of production. Since then, Lin Benjian has continued to break through the limitations of semiconductor lithography technology, allowing lithography technology to successfully drive from the limit of 28nm to 20nm, and leading the immersion type into the 10nm, and even 7nm, 5nm process generation!

If Lin Benjian is an optical expert, then Liang Mengsong is a first-class expert in the development of semiconductor advanced process modules, and he learned from Hu Zhengming, the inventor of Fin FET and UTB-SOI technology. Liang Mengsong joined TSMC in July 1992. After leaving the position of director of research and development in February 2009, during his 17 years at TSMC, he was responsible for or participated in the most advanced technology of each generation of TSMC's process. In the 0.13-micron battle in 2003, Liang Mengsong, who was responsible for advanced modules, ranked second, and his contribution was second only to Chiang Shangyi, the senior vice president of research and development at the time.

Perhaps people began to know more about Liang Mengsong from the TSMC leak lawsuit in 2011. As the inventor of nearly 500 TSMC patents and a member of the "New Process Equipment Selection Committee", Liang Mengsong's importance to TSMC is self-evident. Some people have said that Liang Mengsong's breadth and depth of TSMC's advanced processes, as well as his familiarity with R&D and manufacturing integration, are unmatched in the company. CommonWealth Magazine's evaluation of Liang Mengsong is, "The rise and fall of the semiconductor industry in both places can be determined by the departure or stay of one person." This is enough to show the importance of Liang Mengsong to TSMC.

As the overall leader in the 0.13-micron battle, Chiang Shangyi joined TSMC in 1997 and retired in 2013. During this period, he participated in projects such as CMOS, NMOS, Bipolar, DMOS, SOS, SOI, GaAs laser, LED, electron beam lithography, and silicon-based solar cells. At TSMC, he was responsible for the layout of the research and development of key nodes such as 0.25um, 0.18um, 0.15um, 0.13um, 90nm, 65nm, 40nm, 28nm, 20nm and even 6nm FinFET.

At TSMC, Chiang Shangyi expanded the R&D team from 400 to 7,600 people, cultivated it into a world-class R&D team, and expanded the R&D funding from tens of billions to tens of billions. He can be said to be a very important soul of TSMC. Morris Chang once praised Chiang Shangyi and recognized him as an important promoter of TSMC's level "from the second to the first". In 2009, after returning to TSMC, Chiang Shangyi focused on transistors and advanced packaging projects. At TSMC's third quarter earnings conference in 2011, Morris Chang officially announced that TSMC would enter the packaging field. Now advanced packaging has become a major focus of TSMC, and its 2.5D and 3D packaging products have been merged into one brand, that is, "3D Fabric". Its Zhunan will build the world's first fully automated 3D Fabric advanced packaging plant and is expected to start production in the second half of this year.

Yu Zhenhua is a major contributor to TSMC's achievements in advanced packaging. He is currently the vice general manager of TSMC's Pathfinding for System Integration and the only one of the Six Knights still working at TSMC.

Yu Zhenhua joined the process module development unit of TSMC's R&D department in 1994, responsible for developing key technologies. He started TSMC's copper process R&D work in 1997 and established Taiwan's first copper process laboratory. In the 0.13-micron battle, Yu Zhenhua's business shifted to copper wires and low-dielectric materials, which were classified as "back-end" processes. They were once ignored until Moore's Law began to slow down, and people began to realize the importance of packaging in reducing costs.

In 2009, after TSMC began to develop "advanced packaging technology", Morris Chang allocated 400 R&D engineers to Yu Zhenhua, and Yu Zhenhua successfully developed CoWoS technology two or three years later and further simplified its structure. With the CoWoS, InFO-PoP and TSV technologies developed by Yu Zhenhua, TSMC became the exclusive chip supplier for iPhone 7. By 2016, more and more high-performance chips began to introduce CoWoS technology, and CoWoS ushered in the dawn of victory. It has to be said that Yu Zhenhua's new technology combines integrated circuits and packaging, ushering in the era of 3D-IC in the world and enabling TSMC to enter a new realm of system integration.

Yang Guanglei and Sun Yuancheng are both experts in the integration of overall logic processes. Yang Guanglei served in various positions including R&D director at TSMC companies in Taiwan and the United States from April 1998 to June 2018, and retired in June 2018.

Sun Yuancheng joined TSMC in 1997 as director of the Advanced Module Technology Development Department, and later transferred to the director of the Logic Technology Development Department. In 2000, he was promoted to associate manager and senior director. In 2006, he was promoted to deputy general manager of research and development. He retired from TSMC as chief technology officer and deputy general manager in 2019, and is currently the president of the Innovation Institute of National Yang-Ming Chiao Tung University.

During his tenure at TSMC, Sun Yuancheng led the advanced process technology blueprint, transformed the R&D process and infrastructure, and independently developed new technologies. At the same time, he worked closely with factories and related teams to transfer generations of new technologies to factories for mass production, helping TSMC to transform from a technology follower to a leader in advanced semiconductor technology.

In addition, Sun Yuancheng's team also developed energy-saving CMOS SOC system chip technology, including high-speed, shared logic, and low-leakage transistor IC platforms to meet the needs of different markets and products. The low-power CMOS platform he advocated was also adopted by the International Technology Blueprint Committee to develop a blueprint for technical specification requirements, opening up business opportunities for mobile phones and mobile computing applications.

Source: Content from Digitimes



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