14 DAY TRIAL // As a leading supplier of semiconductors, TSMC has always found the need to expand, but it must also be careful what kind of facilities it builds if it is to stay in business, which is why it has not yet decided on what to do with its next fab.
For those end-users that do not know, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is a major supplier of semiconductors (obviously).
What it is best known for is that it makes chips for both NVIDIA and Advanced Micro Devices, graphics processing units to be more specific.
The past two years, it has focused on the 40nm process technology, on which all current-generation and even next-generation video boards are based.
This includes the GPUs that power the AMD Radeon HD 5000-6000 and the NVIDIA GeForce 400-500 video controllers.
Granted, it did have some issues with the process itself, leading to low inventories of graphics cards on both sides, but they were eventually resolved.
Moving forward, TSMC has to start meeting orders for chips based on smaller processes and plans to expand its capacity.
One means of doing this is to create another manufacturing facility, going by the name of Fab 16.
So far, the foundry has three 12-inch fabs, but might consider making its first 18-inch wafer maker instead of another 12-incher.
Granted, a new 12-inch fab will still probably be built by the time 2014 comes around, but Digitimes suggests the 18-inch fab will probably come first.
It is not clear how soon TSMC will start work on Fab 16, but the report did say some of the tools needed for 18-inch wafers are not ready.
This means that the transition to the next wafer size will come later than originally planned.
What's more, the foundry might just decide to expand Fab 15 as well, and make it compatible with 18-inch production equipment during the later phases.