Another 12-inch wafer fab is coming...

On April 20, Nanya Technology officially announced that it plans to build a double-layer clean room 12-inch advanced wafer factory in Taishan Nanlin Science Park in New Taipei City.

According to Nanya Technology's press release, the total investment amount of this plant is approximately NT$300 billion (approximately RMB 69.6 billion). It will use Nanya Technology's independently developed 10-nanometer process technology to produce DRAM chips, and plans to build EUV extreme ultraviolet lithography production technology, with a monthly production capacity of approximately 45,000 wafers.

This advanced wafer fab is expected to take seven years and be built in three phases. Construction is scheduled to start at the end of 2021, be completed at the end of 2023, and start the first phase of mass production in 2024. It is expected to directly provide 2,000 high-quality jobs and indirectly create thousands of jobs in the industry chain.

Nanya Technology Chairman Wu Jiazhao said that DRAM is a key component for all electronic products to become intelligent and is an extremely important part of the semiconductor industry. In response to the growth trend of the global memory market, Nanya Technology invested in building an advanced wafer fab to enhance its competitiveness, making Nanya Technology not only a DRAM leader in Taiwan, but also a key global memory supplier.

Nanya Technology's general manager, Li Peiying, said that the company successfully developed 10-nanometer DRAM memory cell technology in 2020 and plans to introduce mass production in 2021. In the future, it will be able to produce DRAM products such as DDR5, LPDDR5 and 16Gb high-capacity to cope with the development of the future 5G and smart generation.

Li Peiying further stated that the current demand for DRAM is growing under the impetus of 5G, IoT, and the consumer electronics market. Although market quotations and supply and demand conditions will fluctuate, they will not affect the long-term growth trend, so the expansion of production does not worry about the risk of oversupply. Although this will not quickly increase Nanya's market share, it will not cause a decline in market share.

Li Peiying further stated that the construction of the new plant is expected to start with the introduction of the second-generation 10-nanometer DRAM process, and the monthly production capacity is expected to be 15,000 pieces in the first phase. After the completion of the third phase of construction, the monthly production capacity of Nanya Technology will increase by 45,000 pieces. Although this number is less than the current monthly production capacity of 70,000 pieces, the particle production capacity will be increased due to the improvement of the process. In addition, Nanya Technology also plans to build EUV extreme ultraviolet lithography production technology in the new plant, and also has a related technology research and development center. As for what process or product to introduce in the end, it depends on market demand. (Source: Science and Technology News)