BUT continues cooperation with leading Taiwanese institutions in the strategic area of semiconductor technology

On Tuesday 16 April, a delegation led by Tuo-Hung Hou, Director General of Taiwan Semiconductor Research Institute (TSRI), visited Brno University of Technology (BUT). The meeting covered opportunities in the field of education and development of semiconductor infrastructure. The guests were introduced to the university's facilities and part of the meeting was also held at Technology Park Brno. Representatives of BUT and Tunghai University, another participant of the Taiwanese delegation, signed a memorandum of cooperation in the areas of education, research and mobility of students and teachers. This is the second time this year that TSRI held talks at BUT.

"I believe this is an excellent opportunity to build a strong partnership in training talent for the semiconductor and chip design industry. Behind Taiwan's semiconductor success are the top professionals being trained by Taiwan's universities, and TSRI is acting as their accelerator. We want to share our success, so we have come to introduce our semiconductor education model and offer next steps to expand it to Central Europe," said Tuo-Hung Hou, Director General of TSRI, at the beginning of the meeting.

"The further development of the Czech semiconductor industry will only be possible with enough educated people. That's why we are partnering with a strong partner like TSRI, which has a sophisticated system of education and talent support in the semiconductor industry that has been in place for over 30 years. At the same time, we are entering into cooperation with Taiwanese universities to develop opportunities for mutual scholarship stays of our students in Taiwan and vice versa, and to enable teaching and research internships of academic staff and researchers in order to strengthen the transfer of knowledge and, in particular, to support the development of human resources," said Ladislav Janíček, Rector of BUT.

TSRI - the bridge between Taiwan's universities and industry

"We currently have a very comprehensive ecosystem that supports the entire semiconductor industry in Taiwan, and that's why we are successful. As a result, we have 2 200 master's and doctoral graduates annually, and we hope to help establish similar conditions and services in Europe," said Jeng-Jung Shen, TSRI's Director of Overseas Services, during his presentation.

TSRI's origins date back to 1988 and today it is a top-notch institution that is part of NARLabs under the Taiwan Ministry of Science. It is located in the Hsinchu Science Park, which is considered the equivalent of Sillicon Valley due to its concentration of hi-tech companies and technologies. TSRI acts as a bridge between Taiwan's universities and Taiwan's semiconductor industry. It takes the best of each world - offering top talent state-of-the-art infrastructure and hands-on industry experience for training.

Overview of BUT activities in the field of semiconductor technologies

"Semiconductor technology is an area of strategic importance at our university. We are primarily focusing on the area of chip design. However, we cover the whole technology chain from the development of nanomaterials for semiconductor substrates - wafers for chips, to the actual design of chips and their programming. For the semiconductor field we have top research facilities at the Department of Microelectronics of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication of BUT. In particular, nanotechnology laboratories are located at CEITEC BUT, which is on the Czech map of so-called large infrastructures. We cooperate with technology leaders such as onsemi or Codasip and in the field of applications with Thermo Fisher Scientific. In cooperation with selected Taiwanese institutions, we are preparing the launch of a research centre for advanced chip design," recalled the rector of BUT and added that Codasip is a spin-off of the Faculty of Information Technology of BUT and the university also has a long-standing close strategic partnership with onsemi and Thermo Fisher Scientific and a significant number of its graduates work there.

During the meeting, the Czech National Semiconductor Cluster (CNSC), of which BUT is a founding member, was also introduced. Its president Stanislav Černý introduced the Taiwanese guests to the mission and activities of the cluster, forms of cooperation with European and governmental institutions, as well as the development of the national semiconductor strategy.

Another contribution to the development of the semiconductor ecosystem in the Czech Republic is the building of the National Competence Centre for Chips and Semiconductors, expected to be based in Brno. "Competence centres for semiconductors and chips represent one of the pillars of the so-called Chips Act of the European Union and are intended to be coordination centres supporting the development of the semiconductor ecosystem. They are intended to connect technological capacities in the field of semiconductors, support the development of human resources and knowledge transfer. BUT together with the Czech Technical University in Prague, onsemi and Codasip, CNSC and the South Moravian Innovation Centre (JIC) are working together on the preparation of the centre, on setting the functions and roles of the centre in accordance with the rules set by the European Commission. BUT is the leading partner of the consortium," said rector Janíček.

Semiconductor technology is also one of the key themes of the 125th anniversary of the university.

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