This year, the Chinese company SMIC intends to spend a record $5 billion on capital construction and to increase the processing of silicon plates to a standard of 200 mm to 150,000 grand a month, but it will not stop there. A new company in Tianjin, which began construction last Saturday, will be able to process up to 100,000 silicon plates of 300 mm each month.
Preparations for the start-up of the construction were complicated by the fact that Tianjin still has a partial locodown associated with new outbreaks of coronavirus infection. SMIC has been working systematically with the Tianjin authorities since 27 August to prepare for the start-up of the construction of a new plant. Fourteen of the sixteen areas of this settlement have so far detected cases of coronavirus infection. Even under such difficult conditions, the building began on the last Saturday without much delay, as the authorities are aware of the importance of expanding the production capacity of the Chinese semi-conductor industry, of which SMIC is the flagship.
This contract manufacturer in Tianjin already has a plant that handles 200 mm silicon plates, but the new site will make it possible to work with larger 300 mm plates. The gap in lithography in the plant is not expected, as the most advanced process will be 28 nm. The former SMIC plant in Tianjina was acquired by Motorola in 2004. In 2016, SMIC began to expand it, increasing its monthly production to 150,000 silicon plates.