TSMC production hit by sub-standard chemical

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Foundry giant TSMC has discovered it has been using a sub-standard chemical in production at its Fab 14b in Tainan, in the south of Taiwan. Tens of thousands of wafers being processed for customers such as Nvidia, MediaTek and Huawei HiSilicon could be affected, according to reports.

eenewseurope.com, Jan. 28, 2019 – 

TSMC has reportedly issued a statement saying "TSMC has discovered a shipment of chemical material used in the manufacturing process that deviated from the specification and will impact wafer yield."

TSMC's Fab 14b is used for 16/12nm FinFET production, according to reports.

Nikkei Asian Review states that the material in question is photoresist which is supplied by such companies as Shin-Etsu, JSR and Dow Chemical.

Nikkei reported that TSMC does not expect to lower its financial guidance for this quarter due to the production problems, but also said it has yet to complete the evaluation of the financial impact.

If the impact is limited to just 10,000 wafers at a nominal value of a few thousands dollars each, then it may only cost TSMC a few tens of millions of dollars, a relatively small amount for a company with sales revenue in 2018 of $34.2 billion.

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