Taichung, Taiwan: TSMC held a groundbreaking ceremony in Taichung’s Central Taiwan Science Park for Phase 3 of its Fab 15 GigaFab. Phase 3, which will involve 20nm and more advanced process nodes, plans to maintain a capacity of 40,000 300mm wafers per month.
TSMC began Phase 1 construction of Fab 15 in July 2010, and completed equipment move-in in mid-2011 (volume production is slated for early 2012). Phase 2 of Fab 15, which started construction in mid-2011, is expected to begin volume production next year.
Phases 1 and 2 are forecast to generate as much as $3 billion (U.S.) in revenue per year once they enter volume production. TSMC expects Phase 3 to reach a similar scale in the future. Fab 15 currently employs about 1400 employees, and anticipates the creation of 8000 job opportunities.
Phase 3 will represent TSMC’s second GigaFab equipped for 20nm process technology, and the company’s third “green fab” following Fab 12 and Fab 14. Phase 3 applies numerous pollution prevention and energy conservation methods, including classification of process wastewater into 25 categories, a process water-recycling rate of 90%, water-use reduction of 62%, and 5% less power consumption than earlier facilities.
In addition, Phase 3 will feature a rainwater collection surface of 40,000 square meters. All collected rainwater is used in landscaping, consuming no water from public utilities.