TSMC's first new overseas fab in years begins to make chips — JASM coming online

TSMC advanced fab reception
(Image credit: TSMC)

TSMC has commenced mass production at its fab in Kumamoto, Japan, marking a significant milestone in advanced chip manufacturing for the country and the first step in its major expansion overseas, reports Nikkei. The plant, operated by Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing (JASM), produces chips using a variety of process technologies for TSMC's major customers in Japan, reports DigiTimes.

As TSMC's Kumamoto fab kicks off operations, this marks the first time logic chips featuring FinFET transistors have been made in the Land of the Rising Sun. TSMC's new fab near Kumamoto on Kyushu Island can process up to 55,000 300-mm wafer starts per month (WSPM) using TSMC's 40 nm, 28 nm, 22 nm, 16 nm, and 12 nm-class process technologies. Several variants of N28 are meant to address automotive and mature applications, whereas the 22ULP process aims at ultra-low-power applications. As for N16 and N12 production nodes, they are meant to address the demands of more performance-hungry applications that can take advantage of FinFET transistors.

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Anton Shilov
Contributing Writer

Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.