Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Saturday said that it would hold a ceremony on Thursday to mark the beginning of mass production using its 3-nanometer process.
The company is to mark the placing of the final beam at its Fab 18 in the Southern Taiwan Science Park (南部科學園區) in Tainan.
It would also detail its plans for expanding 3-nanometer production at the facility in the coming years, TSMC said.
Photo: Lam Yik Fei, Bloomberg
The fab currently mass produces chips using the 5-nanometer process.
It is unusual for TSMC to hold a ceremony to mark the beginning of commercial production of a new technology.
Analysts have said that the ceremony aims to announce TSMC’s intention to continue using Taiwan as a hub for research and development (R&D) and production, despite its overseas investments.
Speculation has risen that the company could relocate its production and R&D centers to the US.
The rumors arose after TSMC on Dec. 6 said at a tool-in ceremony for its 12-inch wafer plant in Phoenix, Arizona, that it would increase its planned US$12 billion investment there to US$40 billion to build a 3-nanometer fab by 2026, in addition to its planned 4-nanometer plant due to be completed in 2024.
The concerns intensified after TSMC sent a large group of Taiwanese engineers to support the Arizona plant, raising investors’ fears that the move could undermine the firm’s base in Taiwan.
The planned Arizona plants are expected to produce more than 600,000 wafers a year, TSMC has said.
Last week, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told a forum held by the Mount Jade Global Science and Technology Association in Taipei that there was “no chance” that a single wafer fab would give a location a technical advantage over other semiconductor manufacturing sites.
TSMC plans to start mass producing chips using the N3E process next year. The process is based on the 3-nanometer technology and produces more efficient chips with a better yield rate.
The company is also developing a more sophisticated 2-nanometer process and plans to build a 2-nanometer fab in Hsinchu, with mass production scheduled to begin in 2025.
The 3-nanometer process uses 16-nanometer fin field-effect transistor technology, which is a 3D transistor structure that allows a chip to run faster using the same amount of energy or to run at the same speed on reduced power.
Chips made using the technology are 10 to 15 percent faster and 25 to 30 percent more energy-efficient than those produced with the 5-nanometer process, whose mass production started last year.
Apple Inc and Intel Corp are expected to place orders for chips made with TSMC’s 3-nanometer process, analysts have said.
The 2-nanometer process would be the first technology in which TSMC employs a gate-all-around structure, which reduces undesirable variability and mobility loss, making the technology the most competitive and efficient on the market, the company has said.
Early this month, Wayne Wang (王永壯), director general of the Hsinchu Science Park Bureau, said TSMC has plans to build a 1-nanometer process fab in the Longtan (龍潭) section of the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區).
TSMC has yet to confirm Wang’s announcement.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
RSS