Taiwan’s Standards Authority Advances Nanoscale Metrology to Support Semiconductors and Quantum Technologies

Taiwan’s Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection (BSMI), under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, is accelerating the development of advanced calibration and measurement technologies to underpin the nation’s semiconductor industry and prepare for next-generation quantum applications. As the authority responsible for establishing and maintaining Taiwan’s highest national measurement standards, BSMI has upgraded its metrology capabilities with nanoscale measurement technologies that support advanced chip manufacturing at the 2-nanometer and angstrom levels, while ensuring critical dimensional control and material purity.

Over decades, BSMI has built a comprehensive national metrology system, completing 133 top-tier measurement standards across 17 technical domains, with mutual recognition from 102 economies. These standards form the backbone of fair trade, industrial precision, and regulatory credibility. To safeguard market integrity, BSMI mandates verification of 22 categories of legal measuring instruments, including electricity, water, and gas meters, fuel dispensers, taxi meters, breathalyzers, and speed detection devices, before import or market entry. More than four million instruments are verified annually, alongside over 60,000 in-market inspections to ensure accuracy and reliability.

Beyond regulation, BSMI plays a direct role in industrial upgrading. Through the National Measurement Laboratory, it delivers more than 5,000 calibration services yearly, cascading national standards to 2,200 testing laboratories and supporting four million inspections across industries, generating an estimated NT$20 billion in testing-related output.

Recent innovations include online self-calibrating temperature sensors that cut calibration time from days to minutes, digital linear-guide alignment technologies that significantly reduce machine tool setup time, AI-enabled acoustic inspection systems for wind turbines that lower maintenance costs, and localized calibration techniques for rail-boundary measurement instruments. Looking ahead, BSMI aims to keep Taiwan’s measurement standards aligned with global benchmarks while scaling up investment in frontier metrology. This would position precision measurement as a foundational enabler of technological progress, industrial competitiveness, and public trust.