TSMC engineers sentenced for stealing 2nm data

According to ME News, on July 30 (UTC+8), four former TSMC engineers—Chen Liming, Wu Bingjun, Ge Yiping, and Chen Weijie—were sentenced by the Intellectual Property and Commercial Court in Taiwan to 10, 3, 2, and 6 years in prison respectively for stealing and leaking confidential data related to TSMC’s 2-nanometer process. Chen Liming and Chen Weijie appealed the verdict, but the Supreme Court of Taiwan rejected their appeals on the 30th, meaning they will now be immediately sent to prison to serve their sentences. The report states that Wu Bingjun and Ge Yiping did not appeal following the first-instance ruling, and the prosecution also did not file an appeal; thus, their sentences have become final. Chen Liming previously served as a yield engineer at TSMC’s Factory 12. After leaving TSMC, he joined Tokyo Electron, a semiconductor manufacturing equipment supplier to TSMC, working in its marketing division. In an effort to impress his new employer and secure more equipment contracts for Tokyo Electron in TSMC’s advanced processes, Chen repeatedly leveraged his former collegial relationships with Wu, Ge, and Chen to request that they photograph confidential TSMC documents. The four engineers accessed confidential files via the work laptops of still-employed engineers involved in the case, either allowing Chen to photograph them directly or sending photographed copies to him. (Global Times) (Source: ODaily)