TSMC Plant Hit By Power Outage - Millions Of Dollars In Damage Expected

The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's (TSMC) chip fabrication found in the province's Tainan sector experienced a power outage before today. This facility is responsible for fabricating semiconductors on the 12nm and higher process nodes, with its output primarily used to supply chips destined for automotive uses. It comes as the global automotive industry is dealing with a semiconductor supply crisis, and initial, unofficial estimates advise that the damage could amount to millions of NT$.

Power Supplier Taipower'southward 161kV Cable Cutting During Structure Process - Repairs Expected To Be Complete Tomorrow

The outage took place at 11:06 local time equally a plant under construction past Qi Qi Construction Co. Ltd. in the Nan-Ke subsector of the Tainan cut a 161kV ability cablevision belonging to Taipower. TSMC operates its Fab 14 in Nan-Ke, and as a result, this facility's power supply experiences significant voltage drops.

Following the outage, the power supply was not restored until xviii:23, and in the concurrently, TSMC switched power to its fill-in diesel fuel generators, believe reports from United Daily News. The fab likewise antiseptic that there were no safety concerns to its workers due to the outage and that no person had to be evacuated as a result. The fab is now receiving power from a fill-in power line, and Taipower expects repairs to exist finished by 17:00 local fourth dimension tomorrow.

Due to the outage, Taiwanese manufacture sources wait that the damage to TSMC's output can reach millions of NT$. While the company is nevertheless to officially provide an update about the damage, with one expected tomorrow as TSMC evaluates the situation, up to thirty,000 wafers are expected to be impacted due to the ability breakdown.

The P7 plant in the 14B factory in the center of the outbreak is believed to take a monthly production capacity of 40,000. Judging by this, the 30,000 wafer loss estimate seems to be exaggerated. Therefore, it should not be taken every bit set in stone unless further details on the matter come to light.

Entrance of TSMC'southward Fab 14B, which was at the center of today's outage. Image: EPA/Jiji

Using TSMC's revenue-per-wafer estimates and deriving a range from unofficial wafer damage reports allows us to speculate the company's monetary damage. TSMC is believed to earn an average of $ane,624 per wafer and assuming that a minimum of 1000 wafers were lost or rendered unusable due to the outage results in a acquirement loss of roughly $1.6 1000000.

Delving a bit deeper and using an older estimate from IBS reveals that a 16nm wafer price is $5,912. This increases the toll of today's loss fifty-fifty at a depression-terminate approximate of 1,000 wafers fivefold from our earlier estimates. When determining cloth loss to TSMC, the wafer toll is a more accurate approximate as it provides the costs that the company has already incurred during the product process, whereas wafer revenue is the corporeality that the fab expects to earn.

The 16nm wafer toll, coupled with a high-finish loss estimate of NT$700 million, reveals that TSMC might accept lost up to 4,200 wafers. As has been cautioned in a higher place, all these estimates are preliminary, and the only figures which should exist relied upon are those that TSMC officially reveals.

Whether the ongoing automobile bit shortage will worsen following today's outage is uncertain and depends on how long TSMC volition accept to ramp up operations. The express information out there correct now suggests that the ability supply has been restored, but there is no information yet on the capacity utilization levels of the P7 line.

The Taiwanese fab is already believed to be conducting a Super Hot production run to ease the motorcar chip crunch. This run is already thought to have increased TSMC's costs. The visitor has canceled customer discounts for this year as it faces boosted demand from the consumer electronics sector in the wake of the ongoing pandemic creating a demand upsurge due to remote working and entertainment.

Source: https://wccftech.com/tsmc-plant-hit-by-power-outage-millions-of-dollars-in-damage-expected/

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