TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) held a topping-out ceremony on Tuesday (Nov. 24) for its 3 nanometer process fab at Tainan's Southern Taiwan Science Park, marking an important construction milestone.
Speaking at the event, TSMC Executive Chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) said the factory will be the world’s most advanced logic process plant and will help the company maintain its leading position in the semiconductor industry, CNA reported.
According to Liu, the 3 nm process factory sits on about 35 hectares of land and boasts over 160,000 square meters of cleanroom area — roughly the size of 22 soccer fields. Cleanrooms are designed to maintain extremely low levels of particulates, such as dust, airborne organisms, or vaporized particles, and are vital in the production of semiconductors.
The Tainan facility is expected to begin mass production in the second half of 2022. Once mass production begins, TSMC expects capacity will exceed 600,000 12-inch wafers annually.
TSMC’s Southern Taiwan Science Park campus currently employs over 15,000 workers. Once the 3 nm fab is operational, the company expects to have around 20,000 employees in Tainan.
Liu said that TSMC will continue to invest in Taiwan and proceed with its commitment to green manufacturing by promoting energy conservation, water conservation, waste and carbon reduction, and ecological protection. In July of this year, TSMC joined the Global Renewable Energy Initiative (RE100) and became the first semiconductor company to pledge that it would use 100 percent renewable energy by 2050.