TSMC 300mm fab in Nanjing opens in May 2018, one quarter sooner than expected

TSMC co-CEO Mark Liu announced the company's 300mm fab in Nanjing, China is expected to kick off volume production in May 2018. This is the foundry's second fab in China and it will open about one quarter earlier than previously anticipated. Construction of the plant started in July 2016 and the installation of equipment started in September 2017.

The Nanjing plant will make chips using the 16nm FinFET process, which makes it the most advanced chip manufacturing plant in China. At the moment, China only has 28nm or older plants. Liu also revealed that TSMC now sees AI and 5G chips as future growth drivers.

At the moment, 28nm process is the most advanced process technology for China's foundry houses, while 40nm and 55nm are their most popular nodes. Accordingly, the 16nm FinFET process adopted at TSMC's Nanjing fab will become the most advanced one in China when the fab starts volume production, allowing TSMC to sweep chip fabrication orders in China.

Liu also revealed that besides highlighting four major technology platforms --high-performance computing, IoT (Internet of Things), automotive electronics and mobile devices--to serve as future growth drivers of the semiconductor industry, TSMC has now seen another two fields, AI (artificial intelligence) and 5G high-speed transmission, also catching up.

Via: DigiTimes