The TSMC '2nm and 14nm' leak case, which has drawn significant attention from the semiconductor and legal communities, was adjudicated in the intellectual property and commercial court today (the 27th). The mastermind Chen Liming received a harsh sentence of 10 years in prison, marking the first ruling under the amended National Security Law that escalated penalties for stealing core key technologies. Although the involved company, Tokyo Electron Limited (TEL), received a suspended sentence, it must pay a total of NT$150 million to TSMC and the public treasury.

The first ruling after the national security law amendment concerning the outflow of core key technologies.

This case originated from former TSMC engineer Chen Liming in the yield department of fab 12. The prosecutors found that after Chen Liming jumped to semiconductor equipment manufacturer Tokyo Electron Limited (TEL) as a product manager in 2023, he colluded with TSMC engineers to systematically steal secrets in order to enhance the performance of his new employer's etching machines and secure orders for advanced processes like TSMC's 2nm and 14nm (with nm being the next generation technology node after nm).

The court press release pointed out that Chen Liming leveraged his academic connections and past relationships to instruct current engineers Wu Bingjun, Ge Yiping, and Chen Weijie to access the internal network using their positions, capturing and reproducing critical technical parameters. Among them, the technical information provided by Chen Weijie involves TSMC's crucial '14nm' process, which significantly impacts national economic security.

Tokyo Electron is actively negotiating for a suspended sentence.

Regarding corporate liability, this is the first case in Taiwan where a corporation was prosecuted for violating the National Security Law. The court determined that Tokyo Electron Limited (TEL) failed to fulfill its supervisory duties over its employees, resulting in a sentence requiring it to pay TSMC NT$100 million and NT$50 million to the state treasury.

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