December 7, 2009 – Ten equipment and materials suppliers have received top nods from top foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) for contributions over the past year.

"We are very grateful for the full support of our suppliers during these challenging times for the global economy, and we hope to join hand in hand with them to overcome more challenges in the future through even stronger cooperation and closer partnership," said Stephen Tso, the foundry’s SVP and CIO, in a statement, adding a call to work closely with suppliers for other ends, e.g. solving "environmental problems" such as global warming and sustainability both environmental and industrial.

This year’s outstanding suppliers, praised by TSMC for "special contributions to delivery and technology cooperation during the economic downturn," include:

Equipment

– Best product: Ebara (CMP), Hitachi Kokusai Electric (furnaces)
– Best delivery support: Dainippon Screen (wet clean), Varian Semi. Equip. Assoc. (implanter)
– Best technology cooperation: ASML (lithography), Lam Research (etch)

Materials

– Supplier excellence awards: MEMC Electronic Materials (silicon wafers), Air Products and Chemicals (gas/chemical materials), Cabot Microelectronics (CMP materials), Tokyo Ohka Kogyo (lithography materials)