Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) is reported to have brought a lawsuit against a former R&D employee alleging that he leaked secrets to Samsung, including details of TSMc’s 28 nm process.
Reports suggest that the alleged leak could have helped Samsung gain ground on TSMC in 14 nm FinFET chips that foundry customers such as Qualcomm and Apple are specifying for next-generation mobile devices.
The lawsuit is reported to be focused on Liang Mong-song, a former senior director of R&D at TSMC’s Advanced Modules Technology Division. More recently, Liang was Samsung’s System LSI division chief technology officer for three and a half years. While TSMC has not taken action against Samsung, report suggest that the Korean company supported Liang in the hiring of his lawyers and filing of several affidavits in support of him.
