TSMC's huge Fab 6 cranks out 8-inch wafers, but sets 300-mm pace

"This is simultaneously our last 8-inch wafer fab and our first 12-inch fab," declared TSMC chairman Morris Chang, during the opening ceremonies for what is believed to be world's largest semiconductor or cleanroom facility.

Inside the massive six-story building is a 190,000-sq.-ft, cleanroom and a new 8-inch frontend line that's quickly being ramped into volume production for 50,000 wafer starts a month in 2001. The 8-inch (200-mm) line actually started production in January, and in March it was expected to fabricate 4,000 wafers. By the end of the year, it will be processing about 32,000 wafers a month, according to TSMC managers.

When fully loaded and staffed in 2001, Fab 6 will contain nearly1,000 sets of manufacturing tools and will employ 2000 production and engineering personnel, as well as a support staff of 320.

In July, the silicon foundry company plans to begin equipping its first 12-inch pilot production line inside a portion of the huge Fab 6 cleanroom facility. The 300-mm pilot line will start processing silicon wafers in December and will be capable of handling 4,500 of the 12-inch wafers a month by November 2001, said managers.

Fab 6 -- nicknamed "Big Mac" by TSMC managers -- will become a $2.4 billion investment with $2 billion going for 8-inch equipment and about $400 million for the 300-mm pilot line, said Ying-Chen Chao, director of the fab. To date, TSMC has spent $300 million on the building and $500 million on the first phase of 8-inch wafer tools, he said.

The launch of Fab 6 in the new Taiwan Science-based Industrial Park is part of TSMC's aggressive buildup of wafer-processing capacity during the next couple of years. With demand for silicon foundry services booming, TSMC is increasing its capital spending by 167% to $4.4 billion in 2000 from $1.65 billion in 1999. About $3.6 billion is now earmarked for 2001.

The dual role of Fab 6 underscores TSMC's double-barreled approach to growing capacity in the next several years. The foundry giant is attempting to crank out much higher volumes from today's 8-inch fabs while gearing up for the new generation of 300-mm fabs. Inside all of its existing 8-inch fabs, TSMC is incrementally increasing output.

For instance, the foundry giant's original 8-inch facility, Fab 3 (which was operational in Aiugist1995), will reach 50,000 wafer starts in March, an increase from its 40,000-weafer run rate last year. All of TSMC's eight other 80-inch fabs are also increasing their volumes during the next year, said company managers.

In addition, TSMC is equipping two new 8-inch fabs being acquired through its purchase of Worldwide Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (WSMC) and majority ownership if the TSMC-Acer Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp, joint venture in Hsinchu, Taiwan (see December 30, 1999 story)

And in 300-mm wafer processing, TSMC plans to use the Fab 6 pilot line to establish the tool sets for Fab 12 in Hsinchu, and Fab 14, which will be constructed across the street in Tainan. Construction of Fab 12 has begun and equipment will be installed by the end of that year. If strong business conditions continue in the foundry business, Fab 14 is expected to be ready for its initial production runs in the first quarter of 2002, said Ronald Norris, senior vice president of sales and marketing at TSMC.

Fab 12 will be equipped to produce 25,000 twelve-inch wafers a month, said Steve Tso, senior vice president of WaferTech, a joint venture fab in Camas, Wash. TSMC is attempting to boost the performance of WaferTech, which has suffered lower foundry yields than similar fabs in Taiwan (see March 28 story). In a discussion earlier this week, TSMC chairman and CEO Chang said he believed yields and wafer output would increase in the coming year at WaferTech, and expansion plans were being made for the U.S. foundry, including the possiblity of a 300-mm production line.

Initially, the Fab 6 pilot line will be outfitted to process 12-inch substrates with 0,18-micron technology. All of the 300-mm equipment now appears to be ready for delivery in the summer, Tso said, but the major problem has been the schedule for 300-mm i-line scanners from ASM Lithography. TSMC has been working with ASML to move up the shipment of those scanners by September, he said.

Under many agreements for pilot line tools, TSMC is receiving 300-mm tools for free during the first-year evaluations, said Tso.

"We are getting help from the equipment suppliers in our evaluations. This reduces risks because we don't know which ones we will use," he added. "In many cases where a supplier has a monopoly, we must pay fore the equipment."

But TSMC -- and many industry observers -- believe capital equipment suppliers will eagerly jump at the chance to have their systems installed in Fab 6 pilot line because it will determine what 300-mm tools will be installed in the foundry's next several plants.

"The suppliers are taking this very seriously," Norris said. "The Fab 6 pilot line is being set up for production and not just as a prototyping facility."

TSMC managers also like to emphasize that the company is ahead of Intel Corp. and other sin its plans to evaluate and use 300-mm gear.

"Intel is planning to get into 300-mm with 0.13-micron technology," noted Tso. "We are moving into 300-mm earlier with 0.18 micron technology pilot runs and that will give us data ahead of Intel as well as Samsung."

TSMC's 300-mm schedule us also slightly ahead of that of its foundry rival, United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), which at the end of last year announced a joint venture 12-inch fab with Hitachi Ltd. in Japan. That facility will begin processing 12-inch wafers with 0.18 micron technology from UMC in early 2001, just a few months after the start of the Fab 6 pilot line.