Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) the world-largest semiconductor foundry headquartered in Taiwan is going to establish an affiliate for 22 and 28nm process foundry in Kumamoto under the name of Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing (JASM). The construction will start in 2022 aiming for a start of production by the end of 2024. The investment amounts to about JPY800 billion. A planned number of wafers produced per month will be 45,000 wafers (300mm wafer sheets).

It follows that Sony Semiconductor Solutions is going to make a capital investment amounting to JPY57 billion to JASN which accounts for less than 20% of shares. Their gas supply plan and the selection of equipment will probably be decided in detail from now on.

Regarding the “TSMC Japan SDIC R&D Center” of the assembly and testing process research center to start in full scale from next year in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture is going to build up its R&D line inside the high-function IoT device R&D laboratory located at Tsukuba Central-west Business Office of the AIST Institute.

The building of the line has already been completed and it seems they are selecting equipment. The supply of nitrogen is supposed to be made by Air Liquide Japan. A cryogenic storage tank is planned to be set up on the site.