14 DAY TRIAL // Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC for short) and United Microelectronics Corporation (better known as UMC) are not in a great hurry to upgrade most of their production lines to the 12 inch silicon wafers because of a poor outlook concerning the demand for such materials during the second half of the year. According to the news site DigiTimes TSMC's Fab 14 which is equipped to make 12 inch silicon wafers, being centered mostly on memory-related products is expecting lower orders from its clients for the second half of the year and this is the main reason why the company is taking its time when it comes to expanding the 12 inch capabilities to all its production lines.
Most orders for 12 inch silicon wafers and other advanced processes come from big companies like Nvidia, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments (TI for short), and Altera, but even so TSMC forecasts a lower utilization of its 12 inch facility when compared to the 8 inch ones where demand for wafers is high. Just like TSMC, the UMC company works as a contracting firm for other hardware manufacturers and some moths ago it announced its plan to expand the 12 inch production lines with a new plant in Taiwan that costs $5 billion. Unfortunately, orders for 12-inch wafer were constantly below the expected limit, UMC now trying to increase the demand of its wafers that are produced at the plants in Taiwan and Singapore.
While TSMC and UMC are taking the slow approach to the 12 inch silicon wafers, according to SEMI, cited by DigiTimes, the total worldwide shipments of this kind are growing steady. "Despite recent concerns regarding the health of the industry, wafer shipments continue to increase," said Dr Volker Braetsch, chairman of SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG) and corporate vice president of Siltronic. "Growth is primarily coming from 12-inch wafer shipments, which in the second quarter accounted for roughly 35% of the total silicon area shipped."
Among the silicon wafers that are being produced worldwide, there are several types: polished silicon wafers, virgin test wafers, epitaxial silicon wafers and non-polished silicon wafers.