Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it planned to boost spending on research and development (R&D) this year by 16 percent to an all-time high of US$2.2 billion to accelerate its technology development.
The company, which supplies chips to Apple Inc for its iPhone 6 series, said it had made efforts on new technologies, capacity expansions and chip design capabilities to meet customers’ needs — efforts that paid off as TSMC won a new client every week last year, bringing the company’s number of customers to 456.
Last year, TSMC spent US$1.9 billion on R&D, rolling out 210 technologies for 8,800 products, co-chief executive Wei Che-chia (魏哲家) said in a speech at the chipmaker’s annual technology forum in Hisnchu yesterday.
TSMC’s R&D headcount grew to 4,600 engineers and it produced 8.26 million 12-inch wafers last year, he said.
In addition to advanced technologies, TSMC also makes power management controllers for Richtek Technology Corp (立錡) and micro controllers for Nuvoton Technology Corp (新唐), Wei said.
The chipmaker is scheduled to start mass production of the 16 nanometer (nm) chips in the second half of this year, Wei said.
The 16nm chips can deliver 10 percent stronger performance than the likes of its rivals, he said.
In addition, an enhanced 16nm chip — requiring 50 percent less power than the original version — would come out in the second half of next year, Wei said.
TSMC plans to begin mass production of 10nm chips in the second half of next year, he said.
Chin Yung-pei (秦永沛), vice president of TSMC’s operations and product development, said that capacity of the 16nm process and the 20nm process is expected to double this year from last year, then rise an additional 50 percent next year.
From 2013 to 2017, TSMC is expected to record a 10 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in overall production capacity, while the CAGR for the 28nm process capacity is estimated to be 20 percent for the 2013-to-2015 period, Chin added.
In addition to enhancing its technology capabilities, the chipmaker is also expanding its capacity to cope with customer demand.
TSMC has budgeted between US$10.5 billion and US$11 billion for this year’s capital expenditures, Wei said, compared with last year’s US$9.52 billion.
This year’s spending would expand the company’s total capacity by 12 percent to more than 9 million 12-inch wafers this year from last year’s 8.18 million wafers, mostly for advanced 20nm and 16nm chips.
Commenting on the industry as a whole, TSMC expects the sector to grow 4 percent annually to US$369 billion this year.
TSMC shares jumped 1.38 percent to NT$147 in Taipei trading yesterday, outpacing the TAIEX, which inched up 0.2 percent.
Additional reporting by CNA
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