Interviewed by Craig Addison on 2023-05-13 in MHsinchu, Taiwan
© Computer History Museum
Born in Guangzhou, China, Chih-Yuan Lu’s family moved to Taiwan when he was 4 years old. By the time he entered university, he had developed a fascination and love of physics. At that time, almost all the top graduates from Taiwan universities went to the US for further studies, and Lu was no exception.
He received a scholarship to study physics at Columbia University in New York City, and by 1977 had earned a Master’s and a Ph.D. - both in physics.
Lu then returned to Taiwan to teach physics at National Chiao Tung University in Taipei. Although his salary was half what he received as a research assistant at Columbia, the cost of living in Taiwan was lower and he saw more opportunities, so he did not regret the move.
Lu took an interest in the semiconductor field, which was starting to flourish in Taiwan after the successful technology transfer program with RCA in 1974. In fact, the semiconductor industry was quickly becoming a highly sought-after field for the best and brightest in Taiwan.
Lu’s ideas, expressed in various local newspaper columns, caught the attention of Taiwan’s Finance Minister K. T. Li, who invited him to join the Science and Technology Advisory Group (STAG) as a research assistant. Lu jumped at the offer because it was an opportunity to influence policy making decisions in the early days of Taiwan’s technology development.
However, Lu soon realized he lacked experience in industry, so decided to leave Taiwan for a second time to find work in the US semiconductor industry. In 1984, he joined AT&T Bell Laboratories in New Jersey, where he was involved in DRAM development at a time when US memory chipmakers were facing intense competitive pressure from Japan.
Five years later, Lu received a phone call from TSMC founder Morris Chang, who was also president of Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), asking if he would be interested in heading up a new research project designed to bring Taiwan into the submicron age.
The resulting Submicron Project was a 5-year program backed by NT$7 billion of government funding. The “secret weapon” that helped Lu achieve the project’s goals was an army of young local graduates, many of whom he taught as a professor at National Chiao Tung University. They were especially motivated to sign up when Lu decided to bypass conventional 6-inch wafers and develop Taiwan’s first 8-inch semiconductor fabrication facility for DRAMs.
The resulting technology was spun off as Vanguard Semiconductor, which later became a DRAM foundry under the control of TSMC.
After the Vanguard spin-out, Lu declined an offer by Morris Chang to join TSMC as chief scientist, and instead struck out on his own by founding Ardentec, a wafer testing company.
Lu was later invited by Ding-Hua Hu, one of the original engineers from the RCA transfer project, to work as a technical consultant for Macronix International, a specialist in nonvolatile memory. However, as Lu had just started Ardentec, with $60 million raised from investors, he could only agree to consult for one day a week at Macronix, after receiving the blessing of the Ardentec board.
Lu joined Macronix full time in 1999, as chief technology officer, and was appointed president in July 2007.
* Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - www.computerhistory.org/collec...
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Catalog Number: 102792842
Acquisition Number: 2023.0073
16 май 2024
