TSMC opens 7nm FINFET course to universities

According to eeNews, TSMC has launched a university FinFET program aimed at cultivating future chip design talents for the industry and promoting 7nm chip research.

Educational access for university students, teachers and academic researchers centers on the 16nm process design kit (PDK), but TSMC also offers multi-project wafer (MPW) services at 7nm.

TSMC's partners in Europe, Asia and North America will provide universities with a range of resources for teaching and research projects leading to silicon test chips.

The teaching design materials are based on TSMC's N16 process, including tutorial design cases, training materials and teaching videos, leading students from the traditional planar transistor structure to FinFET design.

For research projects, TSMC provides N16 and N7 process design aids for test chips fabricated through MPW. These include study design in logic, analog, and radio frequency (RF).

“At TSMC, we always keep our eyes on the future—not only that future research will become tomorrow’s technological breakthroughs, but future talent will become tomorrow’s innovators,” said Dr. Kevin Zhang, senior vice president of business development at TSMC.

"By making our 16nm and 7nm technologies available through the TSMC University FinFET Program, we are opening up a whole new arena for researchers and students to explore their ideas and spark their curiosity about the exciting and fast-growing field of semiconductors Heart and passion," he said.