BW March 30, 2000--Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. (NYSE:TSM), the world's leading foundry, today officially opened TSMC Fab 6 the largest semiconductor production facility in the world with a traditional Chinese Dragon Dance ceremony.
The new production facility will feature industry-leading technology ranging from 0.25- to 0.10-micron and is expected to produce 32,000 eight-inch wafer starts per month by the end of 2000, bringing the company nearer its stated goal of producing 3.4 million wafers this year. Fab 6's output is expected to further increase to over 50,000 eight-inch wafer starts per month by the end of 2001.
In addition, the fab will be outfitted with the company's first 300mm pilot line and one of TSMC's four copper production lines.
The grand opening of Fab 6 was attended by hundreds of TSMC employees and special guests, followed by a speech from TSMC Chairman and foundry industry architect Dr. Morris Chang.
"The grand opening of Fab 6 is a remarkable achievement on a variety of fronts," said Dr. F.C. Tseng, president of TSMC. "It's the largest semiconductor fab ever built and is the first foundry in the Tainan Science Industrial Park (TSIP). It also features the highest-yielding eight-inch pilot line in our company's history.
"These achievements are the direct result of a lot of hard work from our dedicated employees and the unyielding support of our vendors worldwide."
"The opening of Fab 6 is a clear statement of TSMC's commitment to delivering on its promise of providing industry leading foundry capacity," said G. Dan Hutcheson, president of VLSI Research Inc. "In addition, the fab will serve as a major production site for TSMC's new technologies, its copper-based manufacturing capability, and its 300mm pilot project.
"A lot of hard work from hundreds of TSMC employees and semiconductor equipment vendors will go into making this a world-class manufacturing site over the next two years."
About Fab 6
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's newest semiconductor manufacturing facility, Fab 6, is located in the Tainan Science-Based Industrial Park in southern Taiwan. After its groundbreaking in July 1998, the eight-inch wafer manufacturing facility successfully completed pilot wafers in December 1999 and first production wafer outs in January 2000.
The Largest in the World: Fab 6 is the largest single fab in the world. The manufacturing area of the cleanroom alone is 190,000 square feet, almost four American football fields. When fully loaded and staffed in 2001, Fab 6 will contain nearly 1,000 sets of manufacturing tools and will employ 2000 production and engineering personnel, as well as a support staff of 320.
Cleanroom Environment: The ballroom of Fab 6 maintains Class 100 cleanliness while the Standard Mechanical Interface (SMIF) minienvironment is equipped for Class 0.1 cleanliness.
Capacity: Fab 6 is expected to support a run rate of 32,000 wafers per month by the end of 2000, increasing to over 50,000 wafers per month by the end of 2001. Upon meeting this milestone, Fab 6 capital expenditure will reach over $2 billion.
300mm Pilot Line: Fab 6 will also house TSMC's pilot 300mm line, with equipment move-in scheduled later this year. The expected pilot line capacity is 4,500 wafers per month. The processes developed on the pilot line, and the experience gained from evaluating 300mm tools and manufacturing systems, will be transferred to TSMC's first full-production 300mm facility, Fab 12.
Technology: Fab 6 will produce eight-inch wafers using advanced CMOS technology ranging from initial production at 0.25-micron geometry down to a 0.10-micron geometry (date to be announced). The facility will feature state-of-the-art-manufacturing capabilities including all-scanner lithography for quick exposure of large, extremely fine-grained reticles. In addition, Fab 6 will use a variety of leading edge manufacturing techniques including shallow trench isolation, titanium/cobalt silicide technology, chemical mechanical polishing, low-k dielectrics and copper interconnects.
Product Mix: Fab 6 will produce digital logic products, mixed-signal logic products, standard and embedded memory products.
About TSMC
TSMC is the world's largest dedicated semiconductor foundry, providing the industry's leading process technology, library and IP options and other leading-edge foundry services. TSMC operates seven eight-inch wafer fabs (Fab 3, 4, 5, 6, TASMC, WSMC and WaferTech), and two six-inch wafer fabs (Fabs 1 and 2).
In addition, the company has begun construction of a $1.2 billion joint venture fab with Philips Semiconductor, which is scheduled to open in Singapore in 2000. TSMC recently broke ground for its first 12-inch fabs, Fab 7 in Tainan and Fab 12 in Hsin-Chu. In 2000, TSMC expects to have the capacity for nearly 3.4 million 8-inch equivalent wafers. |
