TSMC production hit by sub-standard chemical
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.
However, this is not the only disruption TSMC has suffered recently. In August 2018, TSMC’s production infrastructure was infected with a variant of the WannaCry malware, disrupting manufacturing for three days and costing the company about US$85 million in lost production.
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