Who is the king of semiconductor wafer manufacturing? You must have thought of a name in front of the screen, TSMC at the first time. Zhang Zhongmou is the soul of TSMC's development process, but he actually arrived in Taiwan Province when he was over 50 years old.

Who is the king of semiconductor wafer manufacturing? You must have thought of a name in front of the screen, TSMC at the first time. Zhang Zhongmou is the soul of TSMC's development process, but he actually arrived in Taiwan Province when he was over 50 years old. At that time, he had already become the vice president of Texas Instruments in the United States, but he felt confused because of his family and work, which prompted him to start a new career in Taiwan Province, which became a major choice in his life. The American management he introduced was another key to TSMC's success today in addition to technology.

Zhang Zhongmou, now 89 years old, was born in Ningbo, Zhejiang on July 10, 1931. At that time, China was in an era of deep war. Before the age of 17, he had been wandering in the war. At the age of 18, he was arranged by his father to study science and engineering in the United States. After studying at Harvard and MIT, Zhang Zhongmou failed in two doctoral exams, so he had to enter the workplace. Because he studied mechanical major, he planned to work at Ford Motor Company, but Shifanie Semiconductor Company gave him an extra $1 salary. Just for this $1, Zhang Zhongmou accidentally entered the semiconductor industry. Later, Zhang Zhongmou turned to another semiconductor company, Texas Instruments, for 25 years. In 1968, he was the vice president of Texas Instruments IC department.

In his later published autobiography, Zhang Zhongmou said: "I studied mechanical engineering and went to semiconductors all at once. I spent a lot of time studying myself. This is what I learned at Texas Instruments, but it was used by TSMC."

In 1974, the Texas Instruments Taiwan factory, which he participated in the establishment and management, had to lay off two or three hundred employees. Because this unpleasant thing laid the foreshadowing of Zhang Zhongmou to TSMC. In fact, Zhang Zhongmou, who was almost 50 years old at the time, was facing a life juncture. His only daughter was seriously injured in a car accident in Texas, and her marriage with her wife fell apart. She encountered setbacks in her work at Texas Instruments.

1974, Taiwan Province hoped to transform into an export-oriented economy and finally decided to develop the integrated circuit (Taiwanese called integrated circuits) industry. Taiwan Provincial Institute of Technology established the "Electronic Industry Research and Development Center", which was later changed to the Institute of Electronics of the Institute of Technology Research, to develop integrated circuit technology, and sent personnel to study and absorb talents overseas.

In 1980, a project called "Integrated Circuit Research Project" was divided from the Institute of Electronics of the Institute of Industrial Research Institute and established as Lianhua Electronics . In 1985, under the influence of the enthusiastic wave of Taiwan Province, Zhang Zhongmou decided to leave Texas Instruments and devote himself to the starting Taiwan semiconductor industry, and serve as the chairman of Lianhua Electronics.

In 1987, another project of the Institute of Electronics of the Institute of Technology Research Institute, the "Super Large Integrated Circuit Project", was divided and established as TSMC, with Zhang Zhongmou as chairman. Later, because UMC and TSMC gradually developed into a competitive relationship, Zhang Zhongmou resigned from his position as chairman of UMC and devoted himself to TSMC's operations.

As the work became more and more in-depth, Zhang Zhongmou began to discover that in many enterprises and institutions in Taiwan, they were generally accustomed to human-style management methods and their work efficiency was relatively low, so he began to bring in some American-style management models. Although Chang Zhongmou in front of the camera always looks squinting and friendly, the American management he introduced made many TSMC employees frightened at the time. Some TSMC employees recalled that if they were not prepared during the meeting, they would be like a student who was dozing off in class and were thrown away by Zhang Zhongmou on the spot. Later, Zhang Zhongmou decided to abolish the method of human relationship management and switch to institutionalized management. Those employees with the worst performance exams will be fired if they do not improve in the next performance exam.

It can be said that if Zhang Zhongmou had not introduced advanced institutionalized management methods, it would have been equivalent to walking on one leg. It is still unknown whether TSMC can stand out from the competition.

Zhang Zhongmou once handed over the baton to Cai Lixing, the current president of MediaTek , in 2005. However, with the arrival of the financial crisis in 2008, Zhang Zhongmou once again re-elected the military to rectify TSMC. It was not until the dual-in charge system was determined in 2018 that he handed over the baton to the current chairman Liu Deyin and president Wei Zhejia. Zhang Zhongmou, known as the "godfather of semiconductors", finally officially retired at the age of 87.