A malfunction at one of the substations operated by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) that resulted in a sudden power dip on Thursday caused a slight disruption to production lines in Tainan, contract chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) said.
The drop in voltage resulted in some silicon wafers being ruined while some production equipment had to be rebooted, UMC said by telephone.
Production has fully resumed, but damage caused by the incident has yet to be determined, said the company, which operates fabs in Hsinchu and Tainan, as well as elsewhere in Asia.
Photo courtesy of Taiwan Power Co
UMC said its operating target for this quarter is unchanged, but it would be working overtime to meet production demand as a result of Thursday’s incident.
Meanwhile, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said in an e-mail that power supply quickly returned to normal at affected plants, and the incident was not expected to affect operations.
Earlier in the day, the Southern Taiwan Science Park Bureau said the incident had affected some companies in the Tainan and Kaohsiung science parks, but electricity quickly returned to normal the same day.
The bureau said it was informed by the state-owned utility firm that a 161 kilovolt gas-insulated switchgear failed at its Fonghua Substation in Tainan, causing a sudden drop in voltage at about 2:59pm on Thursday.
However, Taipower did not say when normal service was restored.
The power dip lasted only briefly, the bureau said, adding that many large companies in the science parks are equipped with uninterruptible power supply systems to cope with such incidents.
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