
PSMC selects Miyagi site for Japanese wafer fab
Taiwanese foundry Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (PSMC) has selected the Miyagi prefecture as the location for a 300mm wafer fab that could be in operation in 2026.
It was revealed that PSMC was looking to build a fab in Japan in July (see PSMC to create 300mm wafer fab in Japan). The planned budget is 800 billion yen ($5.3 billion) with the first phase of the project requiring a 420 billion yen investment. PSMC and SBI Holdings will pay for about half of the cost of the foundry, with the rest coming from foreign and domestic investors, and government subsidies, the companies said.
PSMC is working with finance company SBI Holdings Inc. in a move that is part of Japan’s effort to strengthen its semiconductor supply chain, PSMC said. Construction is expected to start in 2024.
PSMC offers a variety of manufacturing process technologies behind the leading-edge including logic, DRAM and flash memory, PMICs, CMOS image sensors, and high-voltage circuits. It is Taiwan’s third largest foundry behind TSMC and UMC.
In July Frank Huang, chairman of PSMC, said his company would help strengthen Japan’s domestic IC supply chain, by developing 22nm and 28nm and higher process technologies and wafer-on-wafer 3D stacking technology.
It was also reported that PSMC hopes to get up to 40 percent of the cost of building its wafer fab from Japanese government initiatives to re-invigorate its chip industry.
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