According to the Nikkei Asian Review, TSMC is working with American technology giants such as Google to develop new chip packaging technologies.

As Moore's Law slows down, it becomes more and more difficult to shrink the space between transistors, and innovation in packaging technology becomes particularly important.

TSMC is now using a new 3D technology called SoIC to package chips vertically and horizontally, which can stack and connect several different types of chips such as processors, memory, and sensors. This method makes the entire chipset smaller, more powerful, and more energy efficient.

People familiar with the matter revealed to Nikkei that TSMC plans to use its new 3D stacking technology in its chip packaging plant under construction in Miaoli City, Taiwan. The source said that Google and AMD will become its first customers of SoIC chips and will help TSMC to test and certify these chips. The construction of the plant is scheduled to be completed next year and mass production will begin in 2022.

People familiar with the matter said that of course TSMC will not try to replace all traditional chip packaging manufacturers, but its goal is to serve those high-end customers at the top of the pyramid, so that those chip developers with strong financial resources, such as Apple, Google, AMD and Nvidia, Will not leave TSMC to competitors.

Another chip packaging industry expert said: "These new chip stacking technologies require advanced chip manufacturing expertise and a large amount of computer simulation to achieve accurate stacking, so it is difficult for traditional chip packaging suppliers to intervene."

People familiar with the matter told Nikkei that Google plans to use chips produced by the SolC process for autonomous driving systems and other applications. Google is relatively new in designing its own chips and is currently used for artificial intelligence computing in its data center servers.

According to multiple sources, SMIC is also considering establishing similar advanced chip packaging capabilities and has ordered equipment from some TSMC suppliers to operate a small-scale advanced packaging production line.

TSMC declined to comment on specific customers, but told Nikkei that since computing tasks are more diverse and more demanding than in the past, it is necessary for semiconductor and packaging technology to develop together. Customer demand for advanced chip packaging services is increasing.