Taiwan OKs TSMC's 450mm fab

The Taiwan government has a approved a proposal from foundry chip company Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd (TSMC) to build a 450mm 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 $6.7 billion (about NT$200 billion) worth of wafers per year in 2019, the report said.

Back in 2011 TSMC said it plans to install a 450mm 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.

- Peter Clarke
??EE Times