TSMC Mulls Chip Plant Sites, R&D Center; No Schedule
Thursday March 4, 9:02 pm ET
TAIPEI -(Dow Jones)- Officials of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Friday confirmed parts of a report indicating they are considering new chip plant sites and building a specialized R&D center, but said this forms part of their long-term plans and there is no schedule for the projects at this time.
"We are always looking for sites" to build plants in the future, said Richard Chung, a public relations specialist at TSMC.
He confirmed the company's deputy chief executive, F.C. Tseng, said TSMC was looking into a science park near the central Taiwan city of Taichung, but added any new plant could be built elsewhere as well.
Tseng said the company plans to build a research center for advanced 35- nanometer technology, but gave no time frame for that plan either.
A chip's transistor components and the spaces between them are measured in nanometers. The smaller and more closely transistors can be packed together, the more powerful the chip. Currently, 90-nanometer manufacturing technology is the most advanced in the chip industry.
TSMC is building or already operating four 12-inch chip plants in Taiwan. Only one of the plants has been equipped and is churning out semiconductors, while construction of another has been completed. No equipment has been moved into the second plant yet, said Chung, but it is slated to begin production by the end of the year.
"It takes two to three years to ramp up a fab, depending on the market and the economy," he said.
The other two plants are still under construction, giving some indication that the firm will not need to begin building a new one for some time.
The company's 12-inch plant that is already in production is shipping around 13,000 wafers per month, said Chung. Silicon wafers are the raw materials from which semiconductors are made, and thousands of chips can be produced on each wafer. |
