News

TSMC’s 18-inch wafer volume production planned for 2015

Industry observers were told by TSMC that their tests for the large 18 inch wafer are planned for a 2012-2013, while the volume production should be reached in 2015.

Wafers are large discs on which silicon chips are manufactured and then cut out individually (as pictured above). Wafers are measured by their diameters with the current ones measuring 12 inches (11.8 to be specific).

Obviously, the bigger the wafer, the higher the number of chips on a wafer. The switch in production process from TSMC aims therefore in the reduction of production costs.

TSMC expect to have 95% of the wafer production equipment for 18 inch wafers installed in 2014 and start the volume production by 2015.

“The transition to 18-inch wafer production is aimed at creating more powerful chips, and also enabling a more cost-effective manufacturing method,” TSMC said. “It is not just having larger wafers, but adding more value to customer products.”

However, TSMC is currently facing technical hurdles that have to be solved in collaboration with equipment and material suppliers.

Source

Andy Ruffell

Disqus Comments Loading...

Recent Posts

Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 5090 Possible Price Revealed

According to a new report, the GeForce RTX 5090 GPU will be very expensive. It…

12 hours ago

AMD Krackan Processor with 6 Zen 5 and Zen 5c Cores for Budget AI Laptops Leaked

A new AMD processor in the form of an engineering model has been leaked in…

12 hours ago

SK Hynix Begins Production of First 321-Layer NAND Chips

SK Hynix has claimed to be the first company to mass-produce 321-layer NAND memory chips.…

12 hours ago

Trust Gaming GXT 609 Zoxa 2.0 PC Speakers

SOUNDS GREAT – Full stereo sound (12W peak power) gives your setup a booming audio…

16 hours ago

PowerA Wired Controller for Nintendo Switch

Special Edition Yoshi design Ergonomic controller shape with Nintendo Switch button layout Detachable 10ft (3m)…

16 hours ago

Logitech G Saitek PRO Flight Rudder Pedals

Fluid Motion: These flight rudder pedals are smooth and accurate that enable precise control over…

16 hours ago