The Taiwanese foundry filed the suit in the US in December, accusing SMIC of hiring over 100 TSMC employees and asking them to disclose TSMC trade secrets. TSMC also claimed an SMIC official had asked a manager at TSMC to forward TSMC process information
In its evidence filed yesterday, TSMC included affadavits from former SMIC engineers. According to TSMC, one witness estimated that 90 percent of SMIC’s 0.18-micron logic process was copied from TSMC. According to TSMC’s witnesses, the appropriation of TSMC technology was no secret within SMIC.
TSMC said it had verified SMIC’s use of stolen trade secrets through forensic examination of an SMIC manufactured device bought on the open market. TSMC said the chip contained features that were strikingly similar to TSMC technology. By contrast, said TSMC, the chip bore little similarity to a comparable chip made by Chartered Semiconductor, SMIC’s only reported licensor of 0.18-micron logic processes.
SMIC was unavailable for comment yesterday, but has previously condemned TSMC’s suit as without merit.
This article is based on material originally published by ComputerWire
