Grand Process sues ex-general manager
- Grand Process Technology, a Taiwanese supplier of wet-processing tools used in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s CoWoS packaging line, said April 23 it sued former general manager Huang Fu-Yuan over suspected trade-secret infringement. - The company told Taiwan’s stock disclosure system it has found no evidence that key confidential technology, including equipment or machinery know-how, flowed to China, while the case has moved into judicial investigation. - CoWoS has become a bottleneck for artificial-intelligence chip output, putting extra scrutiny on suppliers that support Taiwan Semiconductor’s packaging expansion. (tsmc.com)
Grand Process Technology said on April 23 that it sued former general manager Huang Fu-Yuan over suspected trade-secret infringement. (ec.ltn.com.tw) The company made the disclosure through Taiwan’s Market Observation Post System after reports claimed its key technology had leaked to China. Grand Process said those reports were “purely untrue speculation.” (ec.ltn.com.tw) Grand Process said it has not found any sign that key confidential technology, including equipment or machinery know-how, flowed to China. It said the case is now in the judicial investigation stage and that it cannot discuss details publicly. (ec.ltn.com.tw) (wccftech.com) Grand Process, listed in Taiwan as 3131, makes semiconductor wet-processing equipment used for etching and cleaning steps. Company profiles describe its products as single-wafer spin processors, batch wet bench systems and combo systems. (hk.finance.yahoo.com) (bloomberg.com) Those tools matter because CoWoS, short for Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate, is one of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s advanced packaging methods. TSMC groups CoWoS with SoIC and InFO under its 3DFabric packaging platform. (tsmc.com) Advanced packaging is the step that links finished chips and memory together after the chips themselves are made, more like stacking and wiring Lego blocks than printing a single part. In AI servers, that packaging step is critical because graphics processors need high-bandwidth memory placed close by. (tsmc.com) Taiwanese market research and industry coverage have tied Grand Process to the wet-process portion of CoWoS production, alongside other local equipment makers. One industry analysis said demand tied to CoWoS capacity expansion was expected to grow at a compound annual rate above 50% from 2023 to 2028. (uanalyze.com.tw) That backdrop helps explain why even a narrowly worded legal filing drew attention. Grand Process said it is cooperating fully with prosecutors and investigators and said all employees, regardless of rank, must follow company rules on intellectual property, trade secrets and customer information. (ec.ltn.com.tw) The company’s statement stops short of alleging that any technology reached China, and it does not describe the disputed material. For now, the public record is a denial of a China leak and a confirmed lawsuit against a former top executive. (ec.ltn.com.tw)
