TSMC Teams Up With Infineon, NXP And Bosch To Build A Chip Fab In Germany
The world’s largest contract chipmaker is coming to Europe with a large $11bn semiconductor plant planned to open by the end of 2027. Today, TSMC announced that it will set up its third manufacturing center outside of its home turf at a site in Dresden, Germany.
The new 300mm / 12-inch fab will be funded by TSMC, some industrial partners, and the German government, aided further by funds from the European Chips Act. Funnily enough, this European joint venture with partners Bosch, Infineon, and NXP will be dubbed the European Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or ESMC.
“This investment in Dresden demonstrates TSMC’s commitment to serving our customers’ strategic capacity and technology needs, and we are excited at this opportunity to deepen our long-standing partnership with Bosch, Infineon, and NXP,” said Dr. CC Wei, CEO of TSMC. Wei went on to highlight that Europe’s strong automotive and industrial sectors made it a “highly promising place for semiconductor innovation.”
When the new Dresden plant gets fully up to speed, it is expected to be about to hit a monthly production capacity of 40,000 wafers per month. The current plan is that the plant will output a mix of 28/22 nanometer planar CMOS and 16/12 nanometer FinFET process technology chips. These processes may sound antiquated to PC and smart device enthusiasts, but they are going to be snapped up by eager local automotive, IoT and other industries for embedded electronics.
ESMC will start building its sizable new semiconductor manufacturing facility in Dresden starting in 2024. As mentioned previously, the plan is to have the building fully constructed, and stuffed with the requisite advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment and staff, by the end of 2027.
