TSMC breaks ground for FinFET fab

TSMC breaks ground for FinFET fab

LONDON – Foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. has held a groundbreaking ceremony for a fab module at its Fab 14 gigafab at the South Taiwan Science Park in Tainan, Taiwan. The phase-six module is expected to be TSMC's first fab to mass produce 16-nm FinFET circuits in 2014.

Building of the sixth-phase module is being commenced only seven months after TSMC (Hsinchu, Taiwan) broke ground on phase-five.

Building work for phase six of the Fab 14 gigafab is not due to start until 2013 as part of a $17 billion capacity expansion scheduled for the next five years, according to a Taipei Times report.

"The factory will be the world's first 12-inch factory producing 20-nanometer system-on-chips and the first 16-nanometer FinFET chip manufacturing site for TSMC," the report quoted TSMC co-chief operating officer Chiang Shang-yi, as saying.

Fab 14 phases 5 and 6 are expected to approximately double the manufacturing capacity of the first four phases by offering 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.


Related links and articles:

TSMC begins building next phase of Fab 14 gigafab

TSMC says single-customer fabs make sense

UMC licenses IBM technology for 20-nm FinFETs





TAG:TSMC FinFET 16 nm semiconductor process manufacturing