Merck Group is mulling augmenting the local supply of some specialty gases and new materials to align with Taiwanese customers’ advance toward cutting-edge semiconductor technologies and artificial intelligence (AI)-related technologies, a company executive said.
As Taiwan is driving technological innovation in the global logic chip segment, Taiwanese firms would require large quantities of chemicals such as hydrochloric acid (HCL), as well as new materials, probably in the next five or seven years, Benjamin Hein, head of Merck’s specialty gases division, told reporters in Taipei on Monday.
“So, this is when we then decide we need to do something about this,” Hein said.
Photo: Lisa Wang, Taipei Times
Merck, headquartered in Darmstadt, Germany, is planning to invest 500 million euros (US$544.14 million) to expand capacity in Taiwan in the next few years, accounting for a major portion of the company’s 3 billion euro “Level Up” global growth program for its electronics business. In Taiwan, Merck last year launched its first-stage investment by building a site in Kaohsiung.
Regarding advanced new process technology, such as high-NA extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) tools, which are used to make the most advanced chips, customers would need new photo-resistant materials and different formulated products, Hein said.
Commenting on the demand profile from AI technology, Hein said the innovation comes mostly from the advanced packaging side, adding that one of the issues is how to integrate high-bandwidth-memory (HBM) chips into a logic chip on the same semiconductor device.
A majority of Nvidia Corp’s chips are made in Taiwan, Hein said.
Advanced logic chips and advanced memory chips would require more of certain types of products, he said. For instance, as advanced memory chips are stacking layers, they would require more dopants and HCL used in etching to clean the structure, he said.
The materials used in the manufacturing process of advanced chips are Merck’s focus, as those products would be the main growth drivers for the company over the next two decades, he said.
It is easy to justify Merck’s investment in Taiwan as it is the world’s biggest semiconductor material market and would safeguard that top position over a long period, as TSMC and other semiconductor companies are to continue investing in manufacturing capacity here, despite the US and Europe stepping up efforts to build local chip capacity, Hein said.
“Our ambition is not to be localizing everything in every country because that will be highly inefficient. We cannot be competitive. So we try to use our network around the world to support our customers wherever they go,” he said.
If not localized, Merck would not be able to successfully work with very demanding customers in the semiconductor industry, given the industry’s faster innovation cycles, he said.
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