LONDON – Leading foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. has held a groundbreaking ceremony for the fifth phase of its Fab 14 gigafab at the South Taiwan Science Park in Tainan, Taiwan.
The module is set to be TSMC's second 20nm-capable fab area, scheduled to begin volume production in early 2014. TSMC's phase 6 at Fab 12 in Hsinchu will be the first fab area to manufacture on 20-nm for TSMC, coming on stream in 2013.
The Fab 14 Phase 5 facility will be combined with the planned Fab 14 Phase 6 to offer a total cleanroom area of 87,000 square meters – equivalent to more than 11 soccer fields and four times larger than a typical 300-mm fab, TSMC (Hsinchu, Taiwan) said.
TSMC did not indicate how much it is spending on Phase 5 of Fab 14. The company has said it expects to spend $6 billion on capital expenditure in 2012.
Fab 14 is TSMC second 300-mm wafer fab following Fab 12. Phase 1 of Fab 14 began volume production in 2004. The first four phases of Fab 12 are now in operation and provided a production capacity of 550,000 wafers starts per quarter, or 2.2 million wafers per year. The output is responsible for estimated annual revenue of $6 billion making each wafer worth nearly $3,000.
The combined output of phases 5 and 6 is expected to be roughly equivalent to phases 1 through 4 effectively doubling the capacity of the fab. At present Fab 14 is staffed by approximately 4,600 employees and the expansion of the facility will create another 4,500 jobs, TSMC said.
"TSMC will continue to invest in Taiwan and fortify its trinity of strengths – technology leadership, manufacturing excellence, and customer trust," said Morris Chang, chairman and CEO of TSMC, in a statement. "Our mission is to be the trusted technology and capacity provider of the global logic IC industry for years to come. In fulfilling this mission, we further solidify TSMC and Taiwan's indispensable position in the world semiconductor industry. This groundbreaking for Fab 14, Phase 5 represents TSMC's capability to develop leading-edge technology, build advanced capacity, and satisfy customer demand. It also lays the foundation for TSMC's next wave of growth."
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