TSMC's new plant is compatible with 450mm wafers

Semiconductor manufacturing technology is becoming more and more complex, the cost is also rising, so that the vast majority of manufacturers are unsustainable, only or split or alliance, only the processor leader Intel, the two giants of the number one foundry are still independent Hard support.

Intel has just recently officially confirmed that the new Oregon plant under construction has been able to produce the next-generation 450 mm large wafer. TSMC has made a similar commitment today.

TSMC claims that Fab 16 fabs that plan to invest up to 10 billion U.S. dollars are very flexible in terms of production equipment and can be used to manufacture 450 mm wafers. They are also considering retrofitting existing Fab 15s. It is also compatible with 450 mm wafer devices.

However, TSMC also admitted that the process of converting to the next-generation wafer size has lagged behind the expected progress, because some of the required equipment is not yet ready and the market is not ready.

Nobunaga Chai, a semiconductor analyst at Digitimes Research, pointed out in a previous report that TSMC is more inclined to start its own 450mm wafer fab than the fourth 300mm fab.

The TSMC Fab 16 fab is scheduled to start construction in 2014. It will be completed in five phases before and after it is put into production. It will produce 600,000 300-mm wafers each month after it is put into operation. The initial process is mainly 28nm. The equipment relocation work for Phase I of the Fab 15 fab will start in June 2011 and will be put into volume production in the first quarter of 2012. It will also produce 300mm wafers.