In January this year, people from the supply chain said that TSMC Nanke wafer fab had wafer pollution incident, and the wafer was scrapped and the loss was being counted. On the afternoon of January 28, people from the supply chain said that the quality of TSMC Nanke Fab 14B factory wafers is problematic, and the estimated loss of tens of thousands of wafers is affected, which affects the main revenue 16/12nm process. Currently, TSMC is counting the losses and impacts.
Last year, TSMC founder Zhang Zhongmou retired for the second time. This time he retired nakedly and was no longer responsible for TSMC . Since then, TSMC has been changed to a co-CEO two-person management system. However, not long after Liu Deyin and Wei Zhejia took over, a production safety accident broke out in TSMC . Last year, the wafer fabs in China TSMC Hsinchu and Nanke were attacked by the virus and lost NT$2.6 billion. Although the wafer virus infection incident only affects production for 1-2 days, it has affected TSMC's html' 22% revenue and even more affected customer shipments.
News from supply chain personnel mobile chip experts said that TSMC Nanke fab has a wafer pollution incident, and the wafer is scrapped, and the loss is being counted.
More detailed information said that this wafer pollution incident occurred at the Fab 14 fab in Nanke Science and Technology Park. This fab was also one of the affected factories during the virus incident last year. Wafer production and manufacturing is a very high process, requiring the use of many kinds of chemical raw materials, which has high purity requirements. This accident was caused by the fact that the imported chemical raw materials did not meet the requirements, which made the produced wafers flawed. The problem with
is that the defective wafer cannot be checked during the production process, and it can only be confirmed after production. Therefore, TSMC does not know how much impact it will be, but it is rumored that the number of losses is as high as tens of thousands of pieces - the average price of wafers produced by TSMC in 2018 was US$1,382, but this time the wafer factory has a 16/12nm process or a relatively advanced process at present, and the price will obviously be higher. If you really want to lose tens of thousands of wafers, the loss will be huge this time.
In fact, since the second half of 2018, the global economy has cooled significantly from its peak, but compared with the decline in popularity of 28nm orders, the demand for 12/16nm process orders is still very hot and popular, and customers place orders in a steady stream. However, this situation has changed after the beginning of 2019. Recently, the market has reported that 12/16nm process orders are no longer as popular as before, and the overall order popularity has cooled significantly compared to the previous one.
Industry insiders analyzed that the capacity utilization rate of TSMC Nanke 14 Factory 12/16nm has dropped to about 80%, but compared with the capacity utilization rate of 28nm, it may be only 60%, or even lower. Nanke 14 Factory is already considered the operating pillar of TSMC . Before
, it was reported that the 28 nm production capacity was idle for too long, and the capacity utilization rate continued to drop to a new low every quarter. Therefore, TSMC internally considered shutting down the 28 nm machine first.
Currently, TSMC is still confirming how big the impact is, and there is no announcement yet. It is hard to say how much negative the revenue will have on the quarterly revenue. However, the 16/12nm process is one of the main revenue sources of TSMC . The GPU chips of NVIDIA, HiSilicon, MediaTek mobile phone chips, and some ARM server processor all use this generation of technology. It is still unknown whether it will affect the supply.
However, TSMC said it will speed up the work to make up for customer wafers and will also learn about the relevant reasons from suppliers; the relevant equipment and machines have not been affected, and the production line will maintain normal operation. It is estimated that the operating goals for the first quarter will remain unchanged and there will be no adjustments due to this incident.
