TSMC Confirms It’s Collaborating with Sony for a $7 Billion Fab in Japan

Tsing

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TSMC has shared a press release confirming that it’s entered into a collaboration with Sony to establish a new subsidiary dubbed Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing, Inc. The partnership will result in a new $7 billion fab in Japan, which will mass produce chips with 22 and 28 nm processes when it goes online by 2024. One of its key goals is to help ease the ongoing global chip shortage.



From TSMC:



Construction of JASM’s fab in Japan is scheduled to begin in the 2022 calendar year with production targeted to begin by the end of 2024. The fab is expected to directly create about 1,500 high-tech professional jobs and to have a monthly production capacity of 45,000 12-inch wafers. The initial capital expenditure is estimated to be approximately US$7 billion with strong support from the Japanese government.



“The digital transformation of more and...
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Yeah there is lots of stuff still made on old nodes that is fine and all that is needed for them......but 28nm in 2024? Uhhhh........

I would think TSMC might want to diversify with some more cutting edge nodes for when they have to abandon Taiwan and move completely abroad.

Also, should have named it Japan Industrial Semiconductor Manufacturing.
 
Paul_Johnson said:
Yeah there is lots of stuff still made on old nodes that is fine and all that is needed for them......but 28nm in 2024? Uhhhh........

I would think TSMC might want to diversify with some more cutting edge nodes for when they have to abandon Taiwan and move completely abroad.

Also, should have named it Japan Industrial Semiconductor Manufacturing.
Click to expand...
I see what you did there and I approve. I did the EXACT same thing in my head when I read the name. I just used integrated.

And I too was surprised at the size. But I imagine car infotainment needs to be more easily hardened from emf than Say a 5nm designed chip could be easily.
 
I was curious so I did a bit of research.

Most fabs today fall under one of three categories

300mm wafers - 16/14nm down to state-of-the-art (currently 5nm) process nodes

300mm wafers - 65nm - 24nm process node

200mm wafers - 350nm - 90nm process node

Apparently the demand is actually tighter for the older process nodes (the latter two). That's why you are seeing these non-cutting edge fabs going up. To put it into perspective, 4-bit microcontroller (low power old tech, used mainly in appliances) orders are up 400% over the last year. A lot of what comes out of the fab are support chips - DACs, display drivers, Power management ICs, radio ICs, etc. Those tend to use these older nodes as well.

Was interesting. I was kinda wondering why they were building older tech as well. I guess when it ain't broke.

semiengineering.com

Chip Shortages Grow For Mature Nodes

Impact felt across many industries, including appliances, smart phones, cars, and industrial equipment.
semiengineering.com semiengineering.com
 
i believe 20nm to 28 nm range was the last cheap node shrink (price per transistor kept dropping to that point). after that it started to level off and even go up? can someone confirm this?
 
Literally every piece of consumer electronics outside of cutting edge CPU, GPU and SOC, are all on older nodes. It's why there are rail yards full of vehicles waiting on control modules.
 
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