On the heels of the announcement made by TSMC earlier to open a new 12-inch wafer fab in the Central Taiwanese Science Park, TSMC chairman and CEO Morris Chang released more details on July 16, saying that the company will earmark NT$300 billion (US$ 9.32 billion; US$1 = NT$32.2) for its new Taichung facility, Dow Jones reported on July 16. With an expected monthly capacity of 100,000 wafers, the new plant - dubbed the Fab 15 - will begin to install new equipment in June 2011, kicking off mass production using 40nm process technology and more advanced 28nm technology in the first quarter of 2012. Aside from the new facility, TSMC stated that the company will continue to expand production capacity at its existing facilities including Fab 12 in Hsinchu and Fab 14 in Tainan to tap the rising demand for chips amid the global economic recovery. To date, the combined production capacity of Fab 12 and Fab 14 exceeds 200,000 12-inch wafers per month, slated to surpass 240,000 12-inch wafers per month by the end of 2010, according to the same source.

 

Moreover, TSMC will hire 8,000 additional staff for the new facility, half of which will be engineers. With 5,000 new employees hired earlier in 2010, TSMC's workforce will total to more than 28,000, according again to Dow Jones.