TSMC this week held its Arizona fab ‘first tool-in’ ceremony, the place alongside celebrating its first US fab, the corporate additionally introduced main growth plans for the manufacturing facility. The world’s largest foundry is ready to speculate tens of billions of {dollars} within the subsequent part of its Fab 21 close to Phoenix, Arizona, to considerably increase its capability and begin manufacturing of chips on its N3 course of applied sciences there by 2026.
Building of TSMC’s Fab 21 part 1 in Arizona was accomplished earlier this yr, and this week the corporate started set up of manufacturing instruments into the ability. The fab will likely be outfitted with instruments from corporations like ASML, Utilized Supplies, KLA, Lam Analysis, and Tokyo Electroni within the subsequent few quarters, and it’s scheduled to come back on-line in early 2024. The fab will likely be producing chips utilizing numerous course of applied sciences that belong to TSMC’s N5 household, which now consists of N5, N5P, N4, N4P, and N4X nodes. Manufacturing capability of this part of the fab will likely be round 30,000 wafer begins monthly (WSPM), although the exact quantity will depend upon precise applied sciences and designs.
Firms like AMD, Apple, and NVIDIA are set to run orders by Fab 21 part 1 to supply their superior chips within the U.S. for the primary time in years.
However that is not all that TSMC has in retailer for Fab 21. The corporate has introduced that they now intend to construct a second fab on the location, additional increasing their US manufacturing capability and establishing a good newer manufacturing line.
The brand new Arizona fab will increase TSMC’s capability on the web site to round 50,000 WSPM and can carry TSMC’s complete investments within the web site to $40 billion. Notably, that is a $28B soar over the preliminary $12B funding TSMC made of their first Arizona fab, underscoring how prices proceed to rise for newer fabs, but additionally that TSMC is turning into extra snug with making bigger infrastructure investments throughout the US. TSMC expects annual income from Arizona fabs to be in $10 billion per yr ballpark, in response to a Reuters report. In the meantime, TSMC’s purchasers utilizing the fabs will generate about $40 billion in income promoting merchandise made by the foundry within the U.S.
Set to come back on-line in 2026, the second Arizona fab will likely be beginning life a era forward of its preliminary counterpart, producing chips on TSMC’s N3 household of manufacturing nodes, which incorporates N3, N3E, N3P, N3S, and N3X. TSMC is anticipated to ship its first N3 chips to a shopper in early 2023, so whereas the fab nonetheless represents cutting-edge know-how as of the time of its inception, by the point it comes on-line it would technically be a trailing-edge fab. TSMC has beforehand indicated that they’d be retaining modern manufacturing inside Taiwan – largely as a result of that is the place their precise R&D takes place – so the corporate’s up to date Arizona fab plans are in step with that stance.
On the subject of capability, the brand new Arizona fab, like its present sibling, will likely be one other “MegaFab” in TSMC parlance. That’s to say a mid-range fab producing round 25,000 wafer begins monthly. TSMC hasn’t disclosed a selected output determine for simply the brand new fab, however with Fab 21 slated to supply 20,000 WSPM, it seems to be like this fab will likely be a bit larger, at nearer to 30,000 WSPM. Nonetheless, with a mixed capability of fifty,000 wafers monthly, TSMC’s Arizona facility remains to be amongst certainly one of TSMC’s smaller operations – 50,000 wafers is barely half the manufacturing capability a single certainly one of TSMC’s class-leading GigaFabs. So even with a second fab line, TSMC’s US operations will solely characterize a comparatively small fraction of the corporate’s total chip fab capability.
Trying ahead, TSMC has already begun development of the second Arizona fab, and given the standard fab development timelines, we are able to anticipate the shell to be full by early 2024. After which it would take TSMC round one other two years to equip it.
In the meantime, TSMC is ready to start out producing chips utilizing its N2 node in Taiwan within the second half of 2025. That node will use will likely be TSMC’s first node to make use of their nanosheet-based gate-all-around field-effect transistors (GAAFETs), and over time will achieve bottom energy supply. Nonetheless, since not all merchandise want a modern node, TSMC will not have any bother lining up prospects for his or her N3 US home capability.
“A robust, geographically numerous, and resilient provide chain is important to the worldwide semiconductor trade,” stated Lisa Su, chief govt and chairman of AMD. “TSMC’s funding and growth in Arizona is extraordinarily essential and mission essential for each the semiconductor trade and our prolonged ecosystem of companions and prospects. AMD expects to be a big consumer of the TSMC Arizona fabs and we stay up for constructing our highest efficiency chips in the USA.”
Supply: TSMC
