MOEA targets 18-inch wafer fab investment

Chen Chao-yih, director of the agency’s Industrial Development Bureau, will soon head a delegation to visit several leading semiconductor companies in the United States and Japan to promote an “18-inch wafer manufacturing alliance” project.

The project aims to maintain Taiwan’s production capacity and cost advantage in the next generation of the semiconductor industry, but Chen acknowledged that there are differing opinions in the sector on the feasibilty of building 18-inch wafer plants.

A factory designed to make chips on 18-inch wafers might require US$12 billion to US$15 billion in investment before it could churn out a maximum of 120,000-150,000 chips per month, figures that have discouraged interest in pursuing 18-inch wafer fabs among members of the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI).

Members of the trade group, representing global manufacturers of equipment and materials used in the fabrication of semiconductor devices, have preferred to improve production efficiency in 12-inch fabs wafer plants.

Intel, currently the world’s largest chip manufacturer, launched a task force in 2006 to study 18-inch wafer (450 mm) plants in 2006, concluding that the world’s first 18-inch fab would be in production by 2012, and that 18-inch fabs would improve overallproductionand cost efficiency in the industry by 2018.

Taiwan has the largest 12-inch fab production capacity of any country in the world, but the MOEA believes the alliance project is necessary to maintain the country’s competitive edge in the industry.

It has enlisted local semiconductor firms and invited ISMI, aconsortium of leading global players, to collaborate in the establishment of 18-inch-wafer plants on a trial basis, Chen noted.

Taiwan’s Industrial Economics and Knowledge Center said a number enterprises will have the capability to set up 18-inch wafer fabs in the near future, including Intel, South Korea’s Samsung Electronics, and Taiwan’s Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s largest contract chip maker, Powerchip Semiconductor Corp, Nanya Technology Corp and Promos Technologies.

In addition to the project, the MOEA also plans to help promote the development of local semiconductor equipment companies and facilities to expand Taiwan’s global reach in this sector, and has. solicited investment from industry leader Applied Materials Inc. and its affiliates.

According to Chen, the company has responded positively and promised assistance after taking the local industry’s infrastructure into consideration, the high added-value and low cost products that could be sourced from the local precision machinery and instrument industry, and the number of industrial parks suitable for its subordinated units to expand their businesses.

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