How Long Does it Take to Go From a Muddy Field to Full 28nm Capacity?

TSMC has a lot of capacity. Not just that, it has a lot more under construction. It currently has 3 300mm Gigafabs, fabs 12,14 and 15 (there doesn't seem to be a 13). This morning, Dr Wang, who is TSMC's VP of 300mm operations told us about the expansion plans. Currently fab 15 phase 3 and 4, and fab 13 phase 3 are to be ramped this year. Four more phases are under construction. Fab 14 phases 5, 6 and 7. And fab 12 phase 7. TSMC used to construct roughly one phase per year, now it builds 3. With all this capacity the will ramp to 13.5M wafers (8" equivalents). Capacity in advanced nodes will double in advanced nodes (sub 45nm).

The ramp of 28nm into volume production was the fastest TSMC has ever done. 20nm/16nm will ramp even faster. Of course this is driven partially by the steep ramps and short product cycles of the mobile industry. Fabs 12/14 have thousands of engineers already preparing for that ramp.

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