TSMC Reiterates 2013-14 450mm Trial Production Plan

According to DigiTimes, TSMC has reiterated its intention start trial production on 450mm wafers in 2013-14 and to be in volume production in 2015-16.

TSMC has reiterated its intention start trial production on 450mm wafers in 2013-14 and to be in volume production in 2015-16, reports DigiTimes.

That confirms what TSMC’s President for Europe, Maria Marced, told the IEF 2011 meeting in Seville in October that TSMC’s fab 12 will have the company’s first 450mm pilot line in 2013-14, and that the company’s first 450mm production fab will be in Fab 15 in 2015-16.

The DigiTimes report says that TSMC expects to have 95% of its 450m equipment installed in 2014 and will begin small-volume 450mm production in 2015.

However, it clashes with what Rob Hartmann, Director of the world’s No.1 lithography tool maker, ASML, told the ISS 2011 meeting in Dresden in October that 450mm manufacturing will not be introduced until 2018 “or thereabouts”.

When I asked him how he felt about not having a tool ready to meet the TSMC timeline, Hartmann replied: “Ask TSMC if they are prepared to fund the development of the tool,” adding: “I really wonder if they’ll meet that timeline.”

In February, Leonard Hobbs, head of research at Intel Ireland, said that Intel expects to see 450mm test wafer generation next year and equipment availability in 2013 and that the company would have its first 450mm pilot line ready to produce wafers in 2015.

Mike Splinter, CEO of the No.1 tools manufacturer, Applied Materials, says that the semiconductor industry’s 450mm wafer size conversion process will start in the 2015-2017 timeframe.

Future Horizons is preparing a report for the EC on the feasibility of an EU 450mm project. The company’s CTO, Mike Bryant says: “Albany will have 450mm demonstration tools next year.”

“Between 2012-2014 development tools for R&D lines and fab modules will start being built – Intel will be buying the equipment and assembling it; in 2015 we’ll get first generation tools – proper equipment with non-optimal performance with chips actually being produced,” adds Bryant.

“Intel will start making chips on 450mm then, and TSMC intends to match them,” continues Bryant,” in 2016/2017 generation 2 tools will be delivering some real productivity and Intel will then start upgrading its existing fabs.”

“In 2019 we’ll be where we are now with 300mm, – 95% yields, 95% efficiency,” concludes Bryant, “and by the next decade, 450mm will be standard.”