LONDON – The Taiwan government has a approved a proposal from foundry chip company Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. to build a 450-mm wafer fab in central Taiwan early in 2014, according to a Reuters report.
The plan, approved by the Council for Economic Planning and Development, has a total investment cost estimated at between $8 billion and $10 billion but is expected to be producing about NT$200 billion (about $6.7 billion) worth of wafers per year in 2019, the report said.
Back in 2011 TSMC said it plans to install a 450-mm pilot line inside its Fab 12 Hsinchu, Taiwan, in 2013 prior to building a dedicated 450-mm wafer fab to be known as Fab 15 in Taichung, Taiwan.
The pilot line would be capable of processing wafers at the 20-nm node while the Taichung fab would be aimed at bringing up 14-nm manufacturing process technology including FinFETs, reports said at the time.
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