
TSMC fab under construction in Arizona
TSMC’s efforts to build a U.S.-based chip manufacturing operation has progressed unevenly since it was announced in 2020, there have been reports of a year-long construction delay, worker-management conflicts and a dearth of Americans with chip manufacturing skills.
So the news from Rick Cassidy, president of TSMC in the U.S., reported by Bloomberg, that the company’s Pheonix fab delivered 4 percent better yield on advanced chips than fab sites in Taiwan is impressive. In chip industry parlance, yield is a quality measurement that refers to the percentage of non-defective products on a semiconductor.
The news also reflects well on the CHIPS Act, passed by Congress in 2022 with the intent to re-establish American chip manufacturing capacity.
In April, the Biden Administration announced up to $6.6 billion in proposed CHIPS Act funding for TSMC, which said it will build a fab with 2 nanometer technology in Arizona intended for AI, HPC, 5G/6G communications, among other applications.
TSMC is in line for more than $5 billion in loans and substantial tax credits to build three Arizona fabs.
There’s been other positive news for TSMC in Arizona of late. Earlier this month, AMD reportedly is sourcing its 5nm high-performance chip production from TSMC Arizona instead of Taiwan.
According to an article in the Taipei Times, the yield announcement “…is notable for TSMC, because it has historically kept the most advanced and efficient plants in Taiwan.”