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.
‘FINGERPRINTING’: The ‘private relay’ feature hides a user’s IP address by rerouting the Web connection through a third party, making it impossible to infer their identity Apple Inc on Monday said a new “private relay” feature designed to obscure a user’s Web browsing behavior from Internet service providers and advertisers would not be available in China for regulatory reasons. The feature was one of a number of privacy protections Apple announced at its annual software developer conference on Monday, the latest in a years-long effort by the company to cut down on the tracking of its users by advertisers and other third parties. Apple’s decision to withhold the feature in China is the latest in a string of compromises the company has made on privacy in a country
SUPPLY CHAIN RESHUFFLE: The chipmaker was ‘cautious’ in not making commitments too early in building production in the US, citing ‘geopolitical factors,’ Nikkei Asia said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is considering building an advanced IC packaging plant in the US following a massive investment to set up a wafer fab in Arizona, Nikkei Asia reported. TSMC was considering the plant in response to “Washington’s desire to bring more of the tech supply chain onto home turf,” the report said. TSMC increasingly faces the need to expand in the US, which accounts for about 62 percent of its total sales, Nikkei Asia said, citing three sources who declined to be named. The potential US plant would be equipped with the latest 3D stacking technologies to arrange chips
Apple Inc has hired Ulrich Kranz, a former senior executive at BMW AG’s electric vehicle (EV) division, to help lead its own vehicle efforts, people familiar with the situation said. The tech giant hired Kranz in recent weeks, about a month after he stepped down as CEO of Canoo Inc, a developer of self-driving EVs. Before cofounding Canoo, Kranz was senior vice president of the group that developed the i3 and i8 cars at BMW, where he worked for 30 years. Kranz is one of Apple’s most significant automotive hires, a clear sign that the iPhone maker is determined to build a
PLEDGE: The contract chipmaker said it would issue at least NT$2.5 a share each quarter and no less than NT$10 per share for the whole of this year Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, yesterday raised its proposed cash dividend for last quarter to NT$2.75 per share from NT$2.5 a year earlier, given the company’s increased earnings. That represents a payout ratio of about 51 percent based on its earnings per share of NT$5.39 in the first three months of this year. TSMC said that its board of directors approved the cash dividend distribution yesterday. The Hsinchu-based chipmaker reassured its investors that it intends to maintain a stable and sustainable dividend policy. The company said that it would issue at least NT$2.5 a share
RSS