A new high-end IC packaging and testing plant planned by contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in Miaoli County is expected to start operations in the middle of next year, Miaoli County Commissioner Hsu Yao-chang (徐耀昌) said.
Hsu wrote on Facebook that TSMC, the world’s largest pure wafer foundry operator, would invest NT$303.2 billion (US$10.1 billion) to build the plant, the largest-ever single investment in Taiwan.
However, TSMC declined to disclose the financial terms of the deal, while a company board meeting on May 12 approved a spending plan worth NT$168.2 billion as part of its investment plans.
Construction of the plant, which is to be built in the Jhunan Township (竹南) section of the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區), is scheduled to be completed in May next year, with operations to begin a few months later, Hsu said.
The investment is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs and boost prosperity in the area, he said.
TSMC has stepped up preparations for the Jhunan investment plan and has been meeting with county government officials, with a meeting scheduled for the middle of this month to brief them on the construction work, he said.
In November last year, the company passed an environmental impact assessment conducted by the Miaoli County Government.
The plant is part of TSMC’s aggressive move into high-end IC packaging and testing services to provide one-stop shopping for chips with advanced 3D IC packaging and testing technology.
TSMC operates advanced IC packaging and testing plants in Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Taichung and Tainan.
In a separate statement, TSMC said it has launched the world’s first 7-nanometer (nm) Automotive Design Enablement Platform (ADEP), which would accelerate time-to-design for artificial intelligence inference engines, advanced driver-assistance systems and autonomous driving applications.
Following mass production of its 7nm process in 2018, the launch of ADEP demonstrates the chipmaker’s industry-leading yield learning and quality assurance experience, TSMC said.
It also enables the company to deliver on increased demand for leading-edge processes to fulfill the high computational needs of automotive applications, the company said.
“TSMC is uniquely positioned with our 7nm experience and comprehensive design ecosystem to unleash our customers’ innovations and achieve first-time silicon success while meeting the rigorous demands of bringing safer and smarter vehicles to market,” TSMC senior vice president of research and development and technology development Cliff Hou (侯永清) said in the statement.
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