htmlOn January 28, TSMC broke out another safety accident. This time, wafer was polluted by unqualified raw materials, and it was estimated that tens of thousands of wafers would be lost, which affected the main revenue 16/12nm process. The GPU of NVIDIA and many mobile phone chip manufacturers such as HiSilicon are using this process. Pollution occurred at TSMC's South Science and Technology Plant 14, and two pollution sources have been confirmed.
1. The iron ion pollution of etching in the previous
2. Later, it was reported that photoresist pollution
This time, TSMC's explosive pollution will affect the production capacity of tens of thousands of 12-inch wafers. There are also rumors that it affects 100,000 wafers, which is difficult to confirm at present, but considering the production capacity of a wafer, the probability of 100,000 wafers is relatively small.
Figure | Chemical raw material pollution incident broke out at TSMC 14. Employees in the factory have been told to stop taking leave and conduct a comprehensive inspection of the entire factory.
In addition, TSMC's incident affected the production of HiSilicon Technologies chips. HiSilicon is a chip company under Huawei . It is not yet known whether this incident will affect Huawei's upcoming P30 series.
TSMC is still investigating this incident to estimate financial losses. TSMC has expressed concerns about its business this quarter, and has slowed its production under the pressure of demand from Apple and high-end mobile phone manufacturers. The incident has undoubtedly added to the insult of TSMC.
In August 2018, TSMC experienced a slowdown in iPhone production due to the virus. TSMC is the world's largest semiconductor foundry, with 465 well-known corporate customers including Qualcomm , Nvidia , MediaTek , Huawei, etc. This incident happened just as MWCh in February 2019 is about to arrive. For some manufacturers to release new phones, TSMC should have entered a tight stocking period, and this incident is very likely to slow down the delivery of chips.
At present, the detection of defective wafers can only be confirmed after production, so it is impossible to confirm how much the impact of TSMC wafer pollution is. Rumors say that the affected wafers have reached tens of thousands. is roughly calculated based on the average price of wafers produced by TSMC in 2018 of 1,382 US dollars, and the loss may be close to 100 million yuan. TSMC's losses this time may exceed the losses caused by previous virus incidents.
In addition, since the 16/12nm process is an advanced process at this stage, the production price will be relatively higher. For TSMC, the impact this time may be far beyond imagination. Judging from the current consequences, this impact may trigger a global chip crisis, and the consequences are terrible. It is not yet known what method TSMC will use to remedy it. (Comprehensive from Xinwen Society, Xinji, etc.)
