Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC)

100px
Type	Public limited (TWSE: 2330) (NYSE: TSM)
Industry	Semiconductors
Founded	1987 at the Industrial Technology Research Institute
Headquarters	Hsinchu Science Park in Hsinchu, Taiwan
Key people	Chairman and CEO: Dr Morris Chang, President: Dr. Rick Tsai,
Products	Silicon Wafers
Revenue	$13.982 billion (2010)[1]
Operating income	$4.444 billion (2009)[1]
Net income	$5.552 billion (2010)[1]
Total assets	$20.433 billion (2009)[1]
Total equity	$17.146 billion (2009)[1]
Employees	30,000+ (2010)
Website	www.tsmc.com

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Limited or TSMC (TWSE: 2330, NYSE: TSM) is the world's largest dedicated independent semiconductor foundry, with its headquarters and main operations located in the Hsinchu Science Park in Hsinchu, Taiwan.

Overview[link]

Founded in 1987, TSMC is the world's first dedicated semiconductor foundry.^[2] In addition to semiconductors, the company has also begun investing in lighting and solar energy-related industries.^[2] It is listed on both the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. Dr. Morris Chang serves as Chairman and CEO, while Dr. F.C. Tseng serves as Vice Chairman and Dr. Rick Tsai serves as President of New Businesses.^[3]

Although TSMC offers a variety of wafer product-lines (high-voltage, mixed-signal, analog), TSMC is best known for its logic chip product line. Various fabless high-tech companies such as Applied Micro Circuits Corporation, Qualcomm, Altera, Broadcom, Conexant, Marvell, NVIDIA, and VIA are customers of TSMC. Some fab-owning companies like Intel also outsource some production to TSMC.^[4] At least one semiconductor company, LSI, re-sells TSMC wafers through its ASIC design services and design IP-portfolio.

TSMC's market capitalization reached a high in December 2010, reaching a value of NT$1.9 trillion (US$63.4 billion).^[5] In 2011, the company plans to increase research and development expenditures by almost 39% to NT$50 billion in an effort to fend off growing competition.^[6] The company also plans to expand capacity by 30% in 2011 to meet strong market demand.^[7]

On Friday, August 12, 2011, the partnership between TSMC and Apple was announced and TSMC has begun trial production of A5 (dual core) and A6 chip for Apple's next-generation iPads and iPhones.^[8][9]

Facilities[link]

• One 150 mm (6 inches) wafer fab in full operation (Fab 2)
• Four 200 mm (8 inches) wafer fabs in full operation (Fabs 3, 5, 6, 8)
• Two 300 mm (12 inches) wafer fabs in production (Fabs 12, 14)
• TSMC (Shanghai)
• WaferTech, TSMC's wholly owned subsidiary 200 mm (8 inches) fab in Camas, Washington, USA
• SSMC (Systems on Silicon Manufacturing Co.), a joint venture with NXP Semiconductors in Singapore which has also brought increased capacity since the end of 2002

TSMC announced plans to invest US$9.4 billion to build its third 12-inch (300 mm) wafer fabrication facility in Central Taiwan Science Park (Fab 15), which will use advanced 40 and 20-nanometer technologies.^[10] It is expected to become operational by March 2012. The facility will output over 100,000 wafers a month and generate $5 billion per year of revenue.^[11] On January 12, 2011, TSMC announced the acquisition of land from Powerchip Semiconductor for NT$2.9 billion (US$96 million) to build two additional 300 mm fabs to cope with increasing global demand.^[12] Further, TSMC has disclosed plans that it will build a 450-mm fab^[13], which may begin its pilot lines 2013, and production as early as 2015.^[14]

WaferTech subsidiary[link]

WaferTech, a subsidiary of TSMC, is a pure-play semiconductor foundry located in Camas, Washington, U.S.A. It is the largest pure-play foundry in the United States. The facility employs 1100 workers.

WaferTech was established in June 1996 as a joint venture with TSMC, Altera, Analog Devices, and ISSI as key partners. The four companies along with minor individual investors invested US$1.2 billion dollars into this venture, which was at the time the single largest startup investment in the state of Washington. The company started production in July 1998 in its 200 mm (8 inch) semiconductor fabrication plant. Its first product was a 0.35 micrometre part for Altera.

TSMC bought out the joint venture partners in 2000 and acquired full control, and currently operates it as a fully owned subsidiary.^[15]

WaferTech is based in Camas, 20 miles (30 km) outside of Portland, Oregon. The WaferTech campus contains a 1 million square foot (90,000 m²) complex housed on 260 acres (1 km²). The main fabrication facility consists of a 130,000 square feet (12,000 m²) 200 mm (8 inch) wafer fabrication plant.

TSMC Design Technology Canada[link]

TSMC Design Technology Canada has been a part of the TSMC family since August 1, 2007. It is Located at 349 Terry Fox Drive, Kanata, ON.

See also[link]

• Very-large-scale integration
• List of companies in Taiwan
• United Microelectronics Corporation
• GlobalFoundries
• List of Semiconductor Fabrication Plants

References[link]

• Altera Invests Additional $37.5M Into WaferTech Electronic News, 1998-12-07.
• McGrath, Dylan. WaferTech Ramps Ahead of Schedule Electronic News 1998-07-13.
• FWEE, Foundation for Water & Energy Education – Position of Power The Columbian, 2006-11-05. Discusses employment figures for WaferTech.

External links[link]

• WaferTech
• TSMC