Status: 21.09.2023, 03:00 a.m.
By: Sven Hauberg
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Saxony is launching a "historic" training program for the TSMC plant in Dresden. A look at the USA shows why this is urgently needed.
Taichung – If you ask the friendly lady from TSMC what all the equipment in this state-of-the-art building on the outskirts of the Taiwanese city of Taichung actually cost, you will only get a tired smile. A lot, she says, a lot. People like to believe her. On nine floors, students learn how to make semiconductors, those tiny marvels of technology that are found in almost every electronic device today. They have 32 lithography machines here alone, each costing "several million dollars", as TSMC explains.
An employee shows what the boxes can do. On a demonstration apparatus, it heats plasma, which changes color the more energy it supplies. This is how the circuits are applied to the wafers, the man explains. Of course, this is a very simplified description of what happens in the devices.
But it is also not so much the technical details that led Saxony's Science Minister Sebastian Gemkow to the industrial city of Taichung, about a two-hour drive southwest of the capital Taipei, this Tuesday. Gemkow has arrived to sign an agreement together with a TSMC representative and the rector of the Technical University of Dresden, which all parties involved call "historic": Starting next spring, German students in Taiwan are to be introduced to the art of chip manufacturing for six months. First it goes to a Taiwanese university, then to TSMC in Taichung. The training is coordinated by the Dresden Technical University and paid for by the Free State of Saxony. "With this program, we have achieved something that is unique in the world," enthuses Gemkow.
TSMC in Saxony: Dresden semiconductor plant needs 2000 skilled workers
Why the program is so important is explained in Taichung by TSMC personnel manager Lora Ho. "Sales in the semiconductor sector will increase very strongly until 2030. By that time, we have a need for 100,000 skilled workers," she says. "We need to prepare for the impending shortage."
In Saxony, they see it the same way. In Dresden, the first TSMC plant on German soil is to be built in the coming years, subsidized by the government with five billion euros. Construction work will begin in the second half of 2024, with production then starting at the end of 2027. One day, 2000,62 engineers will produce chips at the plant, which are in demand primarily in the automotive industry. And these engineers need to be trained first. Not an easy task. Because in Saxony and neighboring Saxony-Anhalt, several large chip manufacturers are crowded together, all of which are vying for personnel. And that, as is well known, is already a scarce resource. There is a shortage of 000,<> skilled workers in the semiconductor sector, according to a recent estimate by the German Economic Institute.
"We live in very special times. Skilled workers can no longer be taken for granted," says TU President Ursula Staudinger. "We need to forge new coalitions." The cooperation with TSMC is a world premiere, for the first time foreigners are trained at the TSMC site in Taichung. One day, there will be up to 100 skilled workers per year.
TSMC plants abroad: praise for Japan, malice for the USA
In Kumamoto, Japan, where TSMC is currently building its first foreign semiconductor factory, they are already further ahead than in Dresden. The first chips are to be produced there from next year, and according to media reports, a second production facility is being planned. Japan was an obvious choice, Taiwanese politicians say. Not only because of the geographical proximity, but also because they are culturally very similar. In addition, one hears again and again, the Japanese work just as diligently as the people in Taiwan.
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Completely different things are said about the two planned TSMC plants, which are currently being built in the US state of Arizona at a cost of 40 billion US dollars. Problems are piling up there, and the start of production has been postponed by a year. U.S. trade unions complain about allegedly chaotic instructions from Taiwan, while Taiwan makes fun of the supposedly incompetent Americans. A video widely shared on social media shows American workers loitering lazily instead of working, according to the commentary. In order to calm the waves, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs traveled to Taipei these days, where she promised to get the problems under control. Hobbs even felt compelled to publicly defend the competence of American workers.
Germany and Taiwan: "very similar" work culture?
In Dresden, they don't want to let it get that far in the first place. "TSMC has learned from the experience in Arizona," believes TU President Staudinger. A "cultural onboarding program" is being developed to prepare students from Germany for their stay in Taiwan. And Science Minister Gemkow invokes a German work ethic that is "very similar" to Taiwanese work culture.
What this Taiwanese working culture looks like can be heard a few days before the arrival of the German delegation in Hsinchu. In the Science Park there, not far from TSMC's headquarters, a semiconductor expert enthusiastically tells us that the Taiwanese employees in the semiconductor plants are scrambling for the midnight shifts. This would give them more time for their families during the day. When he is told about the German discussions about a four-day week, his facial features slip away for a brief moment. No wonder: in Taiwan, they introduced the five-day week only a few years ago. Previously, two days off per week were pure luxury for many here.