Phoenix Silicon International Corp (昇陽半導體), the world’s largest supplier of reclaimed wafers, yesterday said it is investing NT$1.85 billion (US$60.59 million) to build a new plant in Taichung to accelerate capacity expansions, and to meet market demand.
The new plant, dubbed FAB3B, is expected to enter volume production in 2028, the company said in a statement.
It would have installed capacity of 600,000 12-inch wafers per month, Phoenix said.
Photo: Ho Tsung-han, Taipei Times
The firm also plans to double capacity at a separate Taichung plant, FAB3A, to 600,000 12-inch wafers per month next year, compared with 300,000 wafers currently, it said.
“The new capacity expansion plans would bolster Phoenix’s leading position in the global reclaimed wafer market and will also deepen its partnerships with major global customers,” the company said. “That will also give the company greater capacity, scale and flexibility to swiftly respond to global customers’ demand.”
With its capacity expansion efforts, Phoenix this year overtook Japan’s RS Technologies Co as the world’s biggest supplier of reclaimed wafers.
Phoenix in June told investors that a chipmaker uses about 2.7 reclaimed wafers for testing and equipment checking to produce one 2-nanometer wafer, compared with two reclaimed wafers used in the production of one 3-nanometer wafer, meaning that customer demand is greater than the company expected, hence the need for capacity expansion.
The company has also tapped into the advanced packaging market through providing wafer thinning services, it said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (台積電) 2-nanometer process technology is to enter volume production by the end of this year, leading its rivals in offering 2-nanometer chips.
Overall, the firm is benefiting from growing demand for advanced chips and high-bandwidth memory chips used in artificial intelligence and high-performance computing applications, Phoenix said.
About 70 to 75 percent of its reclaimed wafers are used for advanced chips, or those of 5-nanometers or smaller, it said.
Phoenix reported a 31.53 percent growth in revenue to NT$3.29 billion in the first nine months of this year, compared with NT$2.5 billion a year earlier.
Cairo’s new monorail slices across the city skyline, running above the familiar chaos of blaring horns and aging buses’ exhaust fumes that mark rush hour below. The US$4.5 billion monorail, opened this month, is among Egypt’s most prominent new transport projects, part of a debt-funded infrastructure drive criticized for sapping state finances while bringing limited benefits to most of the country’s 109 million people. “It feels like you’re in a different country,” said Ramy Sayed, a restaurant manager, aboard a driverless Innovia 300 train. “No noise, no traffic, we’re not used to this.” The eastern line runs 56km from the bustling middle-class
Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) today unveiled a long-haul network expansion plan at a shareholders’ meeting in Taipei, including direct flights to Barcelona, Spain, and Zurich, Switzerland, as well as a service connecting Taipei, Sydney and New Zealand. Starlux is to become the first Taiwanese carrier to offer non-stop services to the two European cities, while the inaugural oceanic route is expected to expand transit opportunities within the Australia-New Zealand market, Starlux said. Flight services to Chicago, Dallas, Washington and New York are under evaluation, the airline added. Prior to the shareholders’ meeting, the airline earlier this year announced that it would be
Taiwanese prosecutors suspect that three people successfully smuggled at least one shipment of Nvidia Corp artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China after first exporting them to Japan, people familiar with the matter said. The trio was detained last week by the Keelung District Prosecutors’ Office for allegedly falsifying documents related to exports of Super Micro Computer Inc servers containing advanced Nvidia chips, which the US has barred from sale to China without a license from Washington. The move marked Taiwan’s first public crackdown on AI chip diversion after years of pressure from the US to take a more active role in curtailing
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) employee bonuses are likely to grow more than 30 percent this year, in line with the past few years as the company’s profits continue to set new records, an anonymous source cited TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) as saying yesterday. TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, is committed to taking care of its workers, the source said, citing Wei’s meeting with employees yesterday morning. Wei also expressed gratitude to employees for their contribution to the company’s improving bottom line, the source added. Since 2023, TSMC’s employee bonuses have grown at an annual rate of
RSS