Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday unveiled the layout of its new fab in Arizona and reiterated its determination to ramp up advanced 5-nanometer chip production in 2024.
The company said that construction of Fab 21, in which it would invest US$10 billion to US$12 billion, has begun on a 445 hectare plot in Phoenix.
“As we expect demand for 5-nanometer [chips] will be strong and sustainable in the long term, we have made the Arizona fab, Fab 21, one of the 5-nanometer manufacturing sites,” TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told the company’s annual technology symposium.
Photo: Grace Hung, Taipei Times
The chipmaker has shipped more than 500,000 5-nanometer chips from its Fab 18 in Tainan since the technology became available last year, thanks to robust customer demand for smartphones, 5G applications, artificial-intelligence (AI) applications, networking devices and high-performance computing devices, Wei said.
The first phase of the Arizona fab would have an installed capacity of 20,000 wafers a month, TSMC said.
In January, the chipmaker said that further expansion would depend on market conditions and US government support.
TSMC yesterday introduced the technology for its new N5A process to produce 5-nanometer chips for automotive applications such as AI-enabled driver assistance and the digitization of vehicle cockpits.
Production using the N5A process is scheduled to be available in the third quarter of next year, Wei said.
The chipmaker said that its 3-nanometer technology would be the world’s most advanced technology when volume production begins in the second half of next year.
Its fabs in Tainan would be its major manufacturing sites for 3-nanometer chips, TSMC said.
To expedite mass production of 3-nanometer and 2-nanometer chips, TSMC is transforming its 2-nanometer research centers in Hsinchu into sites for initial production of new-generation chips, it said.
TSMC has been boosted capacity to catch up with customers' rising demand,expecting that its advanced technology capacity would expand at a compound annual rate of 30 percent from 2018 to this year.
Among advanced technologies,7-nanometer chip capacity would have increased fourfold until this year since 2018, TSMC senior vice president Y.P. Chin (秦永沛) told the symposium.
Five-nanometer chip capacity would quadruple until 2023 from last year’s level, he said.
The company is also expanding its advanced chip testing and packaging capacity to cope with growing demand, Chin said.
TSMC is building its fifth fab in Miaoli County’s Jhunan Township (竹南), which would offer the most advanced 3D packaging technology of system-on-integrated-chip in the second half of next year, he said.
BYPASSING CHINA TARIFFS: In the first five months of this year, Foxconn sent US$4.4bn of iPhones to the US from India, compared with US$3.7bn in the whole of last year Nearly all the iPhones exported by Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) from India went to the US between March and last month, customs data showed, far above last year’s average of 50 percent and a clear sign of Apple Inc’s efforts to bypass high US tariffs imposed on China. The numbers, being reported by Reuters for the first time, show that Apple has realigned its India exports to almost exclusively serve the US market, when previously the devices were more widely distributed to nations including the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. During March to last month, Foxconn, known as Hon Hai Precision Industry
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and the University of Tokyo (UTokyo) yesterday announced the launch of the TSMC-UTokyo Lab to promote advanced semiconductor research, education and talent development. The lab is TSMC’s first laboratory collaboration with a university outside Taiwan, the company said in a statement. The lab would leverage “the extensive knowledge, experience, and creativity” of both institutions, the company said. It is located in the Asano Section of UTokyo’s Hongo, Tokyo, campus and would be managed by UTokyo faculty, guided by directors from UTokyo and TSMC, the company said. TSMC began working with UTokyo in 2019, resulting in 21 research projects,
Ashton Hall’s morning routine involves dunking his head in iced Saratoga Spring Water. For the company that sells the bottled water — Hall’s brand of choice for drinking, brushing his teeth and submerging himself — that is fantastic news. “We’re so thankful to this incredible fitness influencer called Ashton Hall,” Saratoga owner Primo Brands Corp’s CEO Robbert Rietbroek said on an earnings call after Hall’s morning routine video went viral. “He really helped put our brand on the map.” Primo Brands, which was not affiliated with Hall when he made his video, is among the increasing number of companies benefiting from influencer
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) yesterday expressed a downbeat view about the prospects of humanoid robots, given high manufacturing costs and a lack of target customers. Despite rising demand and high expectations for humanoid robots, high research-and-development costs and uncertain profitability remain major concerns, Lam told reporters following the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Taoyuan. “Since it seems a bit unworthy to use such high-cost robots to do household chores, I believe robots designed for specific purposes would be more valuable and present a better business opportunity,” Lam said Instead of investing in humanoid robots, Quanta has opted to invest
RSS