LONDON -- Leading foundry Taiwan Semiconductor ManufacturingCo Ltd has held a groundbreaking ceremony for the fifth phase of its Fab 14gigafab at the South Taiwan Science Park in Tainan, Taiwan.
The module is set to be TSMC's second 20-nm-capable fabarea, scheduled to begin volume production in early 2014. TSMC's phase 6 at Fab12 in Hsinchu will be the first fab area to manufacture on 20-nm for TSMC,coming on stream in 2013.
The Fab 14 Phase 5 facility will be combined with theplanned Fab 14 Phase 6 to offer a total cleanroom area of 87,000-square meters-- equivalent to more than 11 soccer fields and four times larger than atypical 300-mm fab, TSMC (Hsinchu, Taiwan) said.
TSMC did not indicate how much it is spending on Phase 5 ofFab 14. The company has said it expects to spend $6 billion on capitalexpenditure in 2012.
Fab 14 is TSMC second 300-mm wafer fab following Fab 12.Phase 1 of Fab 14 began volume production in 2004. The first four phases of Fab12 are now in operation and provided a production capacity of 550,000 wafersstarts per quarter, or 2.2 million wafers per year. The output is responsiblefor estimated annual revenue of $6 billion making each wafer worth nearly$3,000.
The combined output of phases 5 and 6 is expected to beroughly equivalent to phases 1 through 4 effectively doubling the capacity ofthe fab. At present Fab 14 is staffed by approximately 4,600 employees and theexpansion of the facility will create another 4,500 jobs, TSMC said.
"TSMC will continue to invest in Taiwan and fortify itstrinity of strengths -- technology leadership, manufacturing excellence, andcustomer trust," said Morris Chang, chairman and CEO of TSMC, in astatement. "Our mission is to be the trusted technology and capacityprovider of the global logic IC industry for years to come. In fulfilling thismission, we further solidify TSMC and Taiwan's indispensable position in theworld semiconductor industry. This groundbreaking for Fab 14, Phase 5 representsTSMC's capability to develop leading-edge technology, build advanced capacity,and satisfy customer demand. It also lays the foundation for TSMC's next waveof growth."
This story was originally posted by EETimes.
