In the clean room at Tsinghua University Photo: Supplied
Inside Taiwan's booming semiconductor sector, rabbit suits, sanitising air showers and transistors smaller than a speck of dust.
A Kiwi company ambitious to be part of the AI boom by breaking into Taiwan's semiconductor powerhouse will have to offer a year's free trials before a decision is even made.
But the prestige of doing business with the world's biggest silicon chip maker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), would be a game-changer for Christchurch's Syft Technologies.
"When you say you're supplying TSMC that means really you're the best of the best in the industry," Syft chief executive Brian Travers said.
"Their procurement process is incredibly stringent, they require free demonstrations for a year or beyond before they make a decision, their purchasing cycle is every three years. But you've really arrived when you're able to get through all of that."
Travers is taking The Detail on a tour of Semicon in Taipei, an industry showcase attended by 100,000 people.
Semiconductors and AI are increasingly in our lives, from the chips that go into our smart watches, phones and cars to military weapons and spacecraft.
TSMC is the global leader in making the advanced semiconductors for companies like Apple and Nvidia. It is leading the supply of cutting edge, smaller, smarter technology and Syft wants to be part of that, with its air monitoring systems.
Syft's speciality is contamination control in the clean rooms of semiconductor manufacturers, where a speck of dust can be disastrous.
Its product does real-time monitoring, something that TSMC doesn't do, said Travers.
The sector is so important to Taiwan - worth nearly 20 percent of GDP and 60 percent of exports - some say it is protecting the island nation from invasion by China.
Travers said it has held its place as the dominant force after decades of investment and collaboration by government and industry.
"One of the interesting things about Taiwan is the intentionality behind everything."
He said that when the Taiwanese government decided that semiconductors would be a key industry, they found a "visionary leader in Morris Chang" who founded TSMC. Chang suggested "a foundry model where [they] contract manufacture for other chip designers ... collaborate with the academic institutions [and] develop a whole ecosystem here where we can build something truly special."
"This is a result of all that."
The Detail gets special access to a clean room at Tsing Hua University's newly created college of semiconductor research, where students in head -to-toe white "rabbit suits" learn the fine techniques of semiconductor manufacturing.
Getting into the dust- and germ-free clean room requires stepping through a sanitising air shower and once inside the clean room, food, drink and taking toilet breaks are banned for up to three hours at a time.
Travers said the industry uses many dangerous chemicals like hydrogen chloride and hydrogen fluoride through the manufacturing process.
"We need to make sure none of those are sneaking out and getting into the clean room."
Syft wants to partner with firms that build the clean rooms so it can introduce its air monitoring instruments at the early stages, he said.
Sharon takes an air shower before going into the clean room Photo: Supplied
Inside the clean room at Tsing Hua University, researcher Dr Sun-Zen Chen explained why the smallest contaminant can cause a malfunction in the production process and cost the manufacturer tens of thousands of dollars or more.
As the technology shrinks in size, one micron of dust becomes more damaging if it lands on the wafer, he said.
"Now we're going into the nano technology, one micron is equal to 500 2nano. If the dust lands here it means 1000 devices - bye-bye," he said, explaining they would all have to be destroyed.
So intent are the Taiwanese government and industry on staying at the cutting edge of the semiconductor game they've launched an AI Centre for Excellence.
The chair, Professor Yung-jen Hsu said the aim is to define a roadmap for Taiwan and its place in the development of AI, and which projects the government should fund.
"We are a small country and AI is very expensive so we cannot do everything. We need to figure out what areas of AI are important for us.
"We try to tell people, focus on sovereignty AI, meaning that we need to develop and deploy AI on our own without relying on other countries. That's important for the resilience of Taiwan."
Some say this country of 23 million people on an island that is not much bigger than Southland is too dependent on semiconductors.
Economist, Professor Tien-Wang Tsaur said Taiwan has tried to develop other industries like car manufacturing but has not succeeded.
"You are absolutely right that Taiwan should not depend too much on one industry."
Interviews for this episode were recorded during a week-long trip to Taiwan organised and funded by its Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
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