It is no secret: espionage is very present in the semiconductor industry. It is in other sectors and we can be sure that a strategic industry such as integrated circuits It is not at all immune to him. On this occasion “the victim” is the Taiwanese company TSMC, the largest integrated circuit manufacturer on the planet. And, curiously, this plot of industrial espionage does not arrive at any time.
And this company is about to start the large -scale manufacture of chips using its most advanced integration technology: the 2 Nm. What we know at the moment is that, according to Reuters, the Taiwanese authorities have arrested three TSMC employees because they have allegedly stole commercial secrets of this company. As we can expect, behind this detention is the TSMC itself, as the office of the Taiwan Superior Prosecutor’s Office has revealed in a statement.
According to Nikkei Asia, those responsible for this company have realized that two employees and a former employee have been made with critical information about the 2 NM photolithography of TSMC. This information is very valuable. In fact, it could be used by a competitor to optimize its own semiconductor manufacturing processes. The research has not yet determined whether this stolen information has reached another company, but United Daily News ensures that researchers have registered the offices of the Japanese company Tokyo Electron. At the moment this last signature has not confirmed or denied anything.
Other industrial espionage frames that have given much to talk
Our next protagonist is Asml. This Dutch company is the only one that is currently capable of manufacturing extreme ultraviolet photolithography (UVE) that are necessary to produce avant -garde chips. At the end of 2023 Peter Wennink, the then General Director of ASML, confirmed that a Chinese origin employee had abandoned the company in 2022 after being recruited by Huawei with the purpose of revealing this secret Chinese company of the Dutch firm that a priori could compromise their business.
According to the Dutch medium, Russia has something important in its favor: it has spies inside Asml
This event was so serious that those responsible for ASML decided to include it in their annual 2022. And Wennink was forced to give explanations in a meeting with investors. According to this executive, the information stolen by the former Chinese employee It was partial. In fact, he described it as “one piece in a puzzle whose box is not in your power.” This Wennink statement rightly reflects the titanic complexity that the most advanced lithography teams produce asml.
At the end of last year this company starred in another plot of espionage. Again as “victim.” The Government led by Vladimir Putin intends to have a prototype of UVE lithography equipment capable of manufacturing 130 Nm chips ready in 2026. And in 2028 another similar one trained to produce integrated 7 nm circuits. A priori it is difficult to believe it, but, according to the Dutch medium, Russia has something important in its favor: it has spies within ASML. Like China. In fact, one of them, a former employee of Russian origin, has been arrested and is accused of stealing critical commercial secrets.
The last plot of industrial espionage that I propose that we review is starring the South Korean company SK Hynix and the Chinese company Huawei. In mid -April 2024, a former employee of Chinese origin of SK Hynix was arrested at a South Korean airport when they were preparing to enter the country. The accusation that was cernia about it was very serious: it was suspected of having stolen confidential information about semiconductor manufacturing processes Used by SK Hynix to give it to Huawei. This employee decided to print 3,000 pages of technical documents, and that movement gave it away because it aroused suspicion immediately within the company. He faces 18 years in prison.
Imagen | TSMC
More information | Reuters | Nikkei Asia
In WorldOfSoftware | South Korea fears US reprisals. To avoid their old lithography equipment, they take dust on a warehouse
