Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. this week broke ground to build a new module for its Fab 14, which is located at the Southern Taiwan Science Park in southern Taiwan. The new 300mm fab will manufacture chips using 16nm FinFET and thinner process technologies. It will take around two years to build and equip the fab. TSMC also revealed plans for phase 7 of the Fab 14.

The Fab 14/phase 6 facility will be one of TSMC's first 16nm FinFET-capable fabs, scheduled to begin volume production sometimes in late 2014 or early 2015. Combined with the Fab 14/phase 5, total cleanroom area will reach 87 000m² square meters, four times larger than a typical 300mm fab, which will further strengthen TSMC's global competitiveness in advanced technologies.

Fab 14 is TSMC's second 300mm fab following Fab 12 phase 1 facility that began volume production in 2004. With phases 1, 2, 3 and 4 now in operation, Fab 14 has capacity of 550 thousand 300mm wafers per quarter, making it the world's largest 300mm fab. The output of Fab 14 phases 1 through 4 has an estimated annual revenue of $6 billion, and TSMC expects the combined annual revenue of phases 5 and 6 to reach a similar scale.

The ground breaking ceremony of Fab 14/phase 6 took place earlier this week and TSMC did not officially issue any statements concerning the beginning of the construction. At a press conference dedicated to the new semiconductor manufacturing facility TSMC said that it would begin to construct Fab 14/phase 7 in the first quarter of 2013 and over the next five years it would invest over NT$500 billion ($17 billion) into Fab 14 complex, reports China Economic News Service.

Tags: TSMC, 16nm, 20nm, 28nm, 300mm, Semiconductor