TSMC begins construction of plant in Arizona, USA

TSMC, the world’s largest semiconductor foundry, which supplies semiconductors from famous manufacturers such as Apple, Nvidia, Qualcomm, and AMD, announced that it has begun construction of a new semiconductor manufacturing plant in Arizona, USA.

In addition to consumer chips, TSMC also manufactures chips used in the US stealth fighter F-35. However, as trade frictions between the US and China have recently intensified, the US government has demanded that Taiwan-based TSMC also start producing chips in the US.

In May 2020, it was reported that TSMC would build a 5nm manufacturing process semiconductor production plant in Arizona, USA. TSMC officially started manufacturing 5nm manufacturing process chips in June of the same year and started supplying Apple A14 chips.

Then, on June 1 (local time), at the 2021 annual symposium, which was held online for the second year in a row due to the impact of COVID-19, CEO CC Wei announced that it had begun construction of a semiconductor manufacturing plant in Arizona.

It is known that the Arizona plant will invest $12 billion, and according to CEO Wei, if the construction goes smoothly, mass production by the 5nm manufacturing process will actually start in 2024. There is a report that some of the Arizona plant’s production capacity may be used for automobile chips using AI and the like.

TSMC announced that it would invest $100 billion over the next three years to expand its semiconductor production capacity, and it was reported that in May 2021, it plans to expand five factories in Arizona. TSMC plans to expand its plant in Arizona for 10 to 15 years, and is said to be considering not only 5nm but also 3nm manufacturing plants.

Wei also announced that TSMC’s next-generation 3nm manufacturing process chip manufacturing technology is progressing smoothly, and plans to start mass production of the 3nm manufacturing process at Taiwan’s Fab 18 factory in the second half of 2022. It is explained that the 3nm manufacturing process chip will increase the performance by 10-15% at the same power and reduce the power consumption by 25-30% at the same power compared to the 5nm chip.

In addition, TSMC’s annual symposium also mentioned that the company is leading the world in chip manufacturing using EUV lithography and manufacturing chips using the 2nm manufacturing process. TSMC is pushing for the introduction of EUV lithography in chip production and owns more than 50% of EUV lithography equipment in the world. TSMC claims that the importance of EUV lithography equipment is increasing with the size reduction required for modern chip manufacturing processes, and that introducing EUV lithography equipment into the process can reduce chip defects compared to conventional manufacturing processes.

TSMC is also planning to build a new factory in Hsinchu, Taiwan that manufactures on the 2nm manufacturing process, and the new factory will be Fab 20 (Feb 20). Related information can be found here.