TSMC Profile

TSMC is the world's largest dedicated semiconductor foundry, providing the industry's leading process technology, library and IP options and other leading-edge foundry services. TSMC operates two six-inch wafer fabs (Fab1 and 2) and six eight-inch wafer fabs (Fab 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8). The Company has substantial capacity commitments at three joint ventures fabs—Vanguard, WaferTech, and SSMC.

TSMC is currently ramping the industry's first 300mm pilot line at its Fab 6 and is constructing three dedicated 300mm fabs, Fab 12 in Hsin-Chu and Fabs 14 and 15 in Tainan. In 2001, TSMC expects to support a capacity of nearly 4.8 million eight-inch equivalent wafers. Fabrication processes offered by TSMC include CMOS logic, mixed-mode/RF, volatile and non-volatile memory, and BiCMOS. TSMC's corporate headquarters are in Hsin-Chu, Taiwan. More information about TSMC is available through the World Wide Web via the link above.

TSMC Vision

TSMC, SoC and the Foundry Industry: Plenty of Room to Grow
Ed Ross, President
TSMC North America

The year 2000 was characterized by tremendous growth for TSMC and the entire semiconductor foundry industry. Dataquest predicts that the foundry share of the worldwide IC market will grow by an order of magnitude between 2000 and 2010, to more than $100 billion. This would represent just under 50 percent of the total IC market worldwide by the end of the decade.

Looking forward, a key trend will be the continuing dis-aggregation of the IC industry, which will focus designers on fulfilling system-level design requirements through transparent relationships with specialized partners that base their products on foundry technology.

Underlying this trend is a strong shift toward complex system-on-chip designs, including analog, mixed signal and RF circuitry. Intellectual property offerings are rapidly maturing to meet the expected demand in this market, and intellectual property developers are working directly with TSMC to ensure that their products are validated in TSMC silicon. Similarly, design software developers are collaborating with our EDA Alliance to offer state-of-the-art tools and new software initiatives, including the recently announced analog synthesis capabilities, that reduce time-to-volume for complex mixed signal designs.

In September 2000, TSMC announced seven customer tapeouts on our advanced 0.13-micron process, on a variety of process options. In November, we announced the development of a 0.13-micron mixed signal/RF test chip that is expected to aid companies in the acceleration of higher bandwidth designs, including Bluetooth and SONET-based communications and consumer products. Also in November, we announced the foundry industry’s first customer wafer starts on our 300mm production lines. Combined, these developments demonstrate a strong commitment to the SoC marketplace going forward.

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