Texas Instruments just started producing 300mm wafers at its Sherman, Texas facility, as SM1, the first of four fabs, have come online. According to the company’s press release, it has started delivering chips from this site to its customers and that’s it’s ready to ramp up output to tens of millions of chips daily. This plant is part of the $60 billion investment into U.S. semiconductor manufacturing the company announced earlier this year, with the second SM2 fab also already underway. TI is investing $40 billion in the four Sherman fabs. Even though the Sherman site broke ground three and a half years ago, its opening is still a major milestone for the U.S. semiconductor industry.
“The start of production at our newest wafer fab in Sherman, Texas, represents what TI does best: owning every part of the manufacturing process to deliver the foundational semiconductors that are vital for nearly every type of electronic system,” Texas Instruments President and CEO Haviv Ilan said. “As the largest analog and embedded processing semiconductor manufacturer in the U.S., TI is uniquely positioned to provide dependable 300mm semiconductor manufacturing capacity at scale.”
The SM1 fab will not produce cutting edge semiconductors used in advanced computing products like the ones produced by Intel, Samsung, and TSMC. Instead, it will focus on chips used for power systems, such as the ones used in batteries for vehicles and electronic devices, automotive lighting, and data center power systems. “We’re pushing the limits with our power portfolio — to drive new levels of power density, to extend battery life with lower standby power, and to reduce EMI signature, shortening the time to EMI compliance which helps make systems even safer no matter the voltage,” Texas Instruments senior vice president for analog power products Mark Gary said. “Our newest Sherman fab will have an immediate market impact, and it’s exciting to think about how these first products will transform technology.”
Just two months ago, Texas Instruments started laying off employees from its older plants that produced 150mm wafers as the company has started to wind down their operations. The SM1 fab produces 300mm wafers, which offer four times the area compared to the older wafer. This gives the company better efficiency, as it can produce significantly more chips per run, and is the current industry standard when it comes to semiconductors. While it’s unclear whether the 183 affected workers were moved to the new Sherman plant, the company claims that it will have as many as 3,000 direct jobs, and that the laid off staff would be given priority for these job opportunities.
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