14 DAY TRIAL // About three months ago, TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) announced its plans to start building a new 300mm wafer factory in the third quarter. Said quarter is now in progress and, sure enough, the chip manufacturer was good on its word and kicked off construction. The factory will bear the name of Fab 15 and will be constructed out of a budget of $9.3 billion. It should start mass producing about 100,000 12-inch wafer each month, starting two years from now.
Fab 15 will be built in Taichung's Central Taiwan Science Park and will be tasked with creating 40nm and 28nm chips. Of course, more advanced processes, such as 20nm and beyond, are also planned. Basically, this move should allow TSMC to cope with demand from all of its customers and the investment will start bearing fruit in the first quarter of 2012.
“TSMC has worked unceasingly to improve its technology leadership, manufacturing excellence, and customer partnership to join together with our fabless and IDM customers to forge a powerful competitive force in the semiconductor industry," said TSMC Chairman and CEO Dr. Morris Chang. "This groundbreaking for Fab 15 in the Central Taiwan Science Park shows our commitment to providing our customers with advanced technology and satisfying their capacity needs. And as capacity in Fab 15 grows, it will create 8,000 high-quality job opportunities, demonstrating TSMC's dedication to corporate social responsibility.
In the company's own words, Fab 15 will be the third Gigafab, a name given to fabs with an output of at least 100,000 12-inch wafers a month. TSMC also intends to invest in the expansion of Fab 12 and Fab 14, with the goal being to increase capacity from 200,000 to 240,000 wafers a month. These projects should complete by the end of this year.