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TSMC broke ground in Hsinchu on Fab 12, its first 300 mm wafer-fabrication project, on December 15, 1999. At the same time, it changed the plan for a second 300 mm project in Tainan: the December announcement described the Tainan Fab 7 as an 8-inch fab instead. By May 2000, TSMC was calling the Tainan construction project Fab 14, and said it and Fab 12 would support the company’s first volume 300 mm production. Those changes make the fab names and dates essential to understanding the announcement.
What TSMC announced in December 1999
On December 15, 1999, TSMC formally broke ground for Fab 12 in Hsinchu, Taiwan. The company planned it as a 300 mm wafer plant combining manufacturing with leading-edge research and development. EE Times reported an investment of more than $2 billion and a planned total capacity of 25,000 12-inch wafers per month. At the time, production was scheduled for early 2002.
The same report described a change to the Tainan project then called Fab 7. TSMC had planned it as a second 300 mm processing plant, but decided to make it an 8-inch fab when construction began the following year. The report characterized that plan as TSMC’s sixth 8-inch fab rather than its second 300 mm plant. These are the plans reported in December 1999, not a definitive description of every later stage of the project.
Why the Tainan Fab 7 name is confusing
TSMC’s May 2, 2000 release said the Tainan facility then under construction as Fab 7 had been renamed Fab 14. The release recorded its groundbreaking in December 1999 and expected its first wafers in late 2001. It also said Fab 12 and Fab 14 were intended to support TSMC’s first volume 300 mm production. That later description does not match the December 1999 report’s description of the Tainan plan as an 8-inch fab, so the safest account is to attach each name and plan to its date rather than treat the project as having one unchanging specification.
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There is another source of confusion: TSMC’s May 2000 release also identifies an acquired Hsinchu facility as the operational 8-inch Fab 7. It identifies an acquired WSMC facility as Fab 8. Thus, “Fab 7” can mean the original Tainan project in the December 1999 report or an acquired Hsinchu fab in the later company release. The location and date resolve which one is meant.
How the 300 mm and 8-inch plans differed
In this announcement, “300 mm” and “12-inch” refer to the larger wafer format; “8-inch” refers to the smaller format commonly described as 200 mm. The difference in the reports was not simply a change of label: TSMC initially described Fab 12 as its new 300 mm facility while the December report recast the planned Tainan Fab 7 as an 8-inch fab. The published material does not provide a direct cost-per-wafer comparison, so it does not establish a specific cost advantage for either format.
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- Wafer Pattern May Vary from the Product Images. Great to be used as gift, display object, exhibition, educating demonstration, testing, decoration or your collection
- Beautiful microchip pattern structure made by the advanced copper technology
- 90~130nm minimum microchip feature Copper Characterization with TEOS or Black Diamond Low-k ILD on the single crystal silicon wafer
- The original value of un-polished wafer is above $500
- No guarantee for research and other applications
| Dimension | Fab 12, Hsinchu | Tainan project, as reported over time |
|---|---|---|
| Wafer format | 300 mm (12-inch), in the December 1999 plan | Described as 8-inch in the December 1999 EE Times report; by May 2000, TSMC said the renamed Fab 14 and Fab 12 would support first volume 300 mm production |
| Role | Fabrication plus leading-edge R&D | The December report called the original Fab 7 plan TSMC’s sixth 8-inch fab; TSMC’s May 2000 release described the renamed Tainan Fab 14 as part of its first volume 300 mm production effort |
| Published capacity or investment | More than $2 billion investment and planned total capacity of 25,000 12-inch wafers per month, as reported by EE Times in 1999 | No capacity figure for the Tainan project is stated in the cited December 1999 or May 2000 descriptions |
| Timing cited | Production scheduled for early 2002 in the December 1999 report; by December 2000 TSMC expected production in the fourth quarter of 2001 | First wafers expected in late 2001 in TSMC’s May 2000 release; by December 2000 TSMC expected production in early 2002 |
Fab 12’s 300 mm roadmap covered logic, memory and chipset products. TSMC described initial process generations of 0.15 and 0.13 micron, with a later move toward 0.10 micron. The cited reports therefore show the larger-wafer program as both a manufacturing expansion and a leading-edge process and R&D effort. The December description of an 8-inch Tainan fab, by contrast, represented continued capacity in the established format while the company developed its 300 mm program.
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TSMC said in December 2000 that it had delivered customer wafers from Taiwan’s first 300 mm manufacturing line. It reported Fab 12 and Fab 14 under construction, with production expected in the fourth quarter of 2001 and early 2002, respectively. These were forecasts at the time, not confirmation that both fabs had already reached volume production. The difference from the earlier schedules also illustrates why dates should be attributed to the release that reported them.
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The same release forecast total TSMC production of 4.8 million 8-inch-equivalent wafers in 2001. That is an equivalent-volume measure, not a count of physical 8-inch wafers. TSMC’s May 2000 release separately expected nearly 400,000 8-inch wafers annually by the end of 2000 from the acquired TASMC Fab 7, and reported capacity at the acquired WSMC Fab 8 of 254,000 8-inch wafers in 2000, rising to 602,000 in 2001. These acquired-fab figures refer to the facilities identified in that release, not the Tainan project originally called Fab 7.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the announcement means—and what it does not establish
The announcements document TSMC building a 300 mm manufacturing capability while also planning for 8-inch capacity. They show a strategic roadmap with distinct wafer formats and facilities, but do not give a stated reason for the Tainan plan change or quantify its financial rationale. It is therefore accurate to say the company shifted the December 1999 Fab 7 plan from a second 300 mm facility to an 8-inch fab, and that later TSMC material described the renamed Tainan Fab 14 as part of its first volume 300 mm production effort. It would go beyond these reports to attribute the shift to a specific demand forecast, cost calculation or production advantage.
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