A Taiwanese web-site DigiTimes reports that TSMC reached yield rate of 70% with their 0.13 micron technology. Earlier this year there were some problems with manufacturing technology that resulted in a loss of about 3000 wafers. Although the company managed to improve the yield by 50% in September, there were some additional issues that were resolved only recently and by now the yield rate is 70% on average.

0.13 micron production lines at Fab 6 are currently booked by Motorola, Qualcomm, VIA, Transmeta and NVIDIA. The former company is the biggest customer of the fab and also seems to be the most successful one in terms of yields. According to the source, Motorola, has seen its 0.13 micron DSP (digital signal processor) production reach 90% yield rates. Nothing is said in regards the yields of the GeForce FX aka NV30 graphics processor that is far more complex than Motorola’s DSP, however, it is generally believed that the yields of new graphics chips are relatively low at the start, but given that the price of high-end graphics cards is high, it does not impact sales or revenues much.

At the moment TSMC can manufacture up to 20 000 wafers per month using its advanced 0.13 micron technology. The details about 0.13 micron lines expansion is not touched upon at this time.