Recently, affected by the United States' ** chip and science bill, semiconductor giants around the world have moved their production plants to the United States, and TSMC is one of them, announcing the construction of a semiconductor factory in Arizona, USA. It is reported that the bill stipulates that the United States will allocate $52.7 billion to the semiconductor industry, a small part of which will go to TSMC.
However, TSMC's wafer factory, which was supposed to be the independent pioneer of semiconductors in the United States, was bogged down from the beginning, so much so that now there is constant news of delayed completion. Now it seems that the wafer factory built by TSMC will not be able to mass-produce semiconductor chips until at least 2025.
As the world's most advanced science and technology power, the United States has the world's top semiconductor technology and industrial scale, why would a wafer factory fall into a predicament?
According to the overseas network, citing Taiwan's China Times News Network, TSMC's progress in building factories in the United States has been delayed, not only because of the shortage of personnel, but also due to multiple reasons such as difficulties in machine installation, shortage of skilled labor, and the "Chips Act" funding is far away. This is the ultimate reason why it is difficult for the United States to revive its domestic semiconductor industry.
As the world's leading technology power, the United States has all customers in the global semiconductor industry. Therefore, as for the so-called semiconductor technology, equipment and demand, the United States naturally has no shortage of them. It is reported that the United States, as the world's largest semiconductor industry country, also owns most of the semiconductor-related technologies and patents.
For example, TSMC, the world's largest semiconductor foundry, brought a large number of ASML EUV lithography machines to the United States after announcing the construction of a factory in the United States, and the United States has AMAT, the world's largest semiconductor production equipment company. Therefore, the United States does not have to worry about the shortage of parts and components.
Not only that, first-line customers in the United States are also anxiously waiting for the completion of mass production of semiconductor factories such as TSMC. Apple and semiconductor design giants such as AMD have signed a partnership at TSMC's factory in the United States.
However, while everything was expected to go smoothly, the United States ushered in the obstacle factor of reviving semiconductors. The problem is not due to semiconductor technology, but to advanced wafer production equipment and skilled workers. According to TSMC Chairman Mark Liu, the construction of the Arizona factory has been greatly hampered by the lack of skilled workers.
Building a semiconductor fab in the United States does not lack semiconductor engineers, but general-purpose technical personnel with experience working in semiconductor factories. It is precisely because of this that the United States will use huge financial subsidies as a "bait" to attract global wafer companies to build factories in the United States, essentially wanting the corresponding skilled workers.
It is reported that in order to solve the labor shortage problem of the wafer factory, TSMC specially sent 600 engineers from Taiwan to the wafer factory in Arizona, USA. However, all the actions of the United States may be in vain. Zhang Zhongmou, the founder of TSMC, believes that the relocation of factories in the United States to recruit talents is tantamount to "wasted effort".
Not only is there a shortage of skilled workers in the United States, but the cost of labor is also very expensive. According to Zhang Zhongmou, even if TSMC can successfully build a factory and mass produce in the United States, because the cost of producing semiconductors in the United States is about 50% higher than that in Taiwan, Japan and other regions, it is a "waste" to build factories in the United States.
In addition, in the construction of semiconductor factories, the most worrying thing is the special chip equipment for semiconductor production. For example, ASML EUV lithography machines, the cost of these equipment is as high as one billion dollars, and the number of companies that can produce lithography equipment in the world is very scarce, so the first level of lithography equipment has become a major problem.
Not only that, but other industrial fields are also crucial for the construction of semiconductor chip factories. For example, today's semiconductor fabs are filled with small rails for transporting FOUPs, special containers for storing and moving wafers. The robot equipment used to adjust the position of the semiconductor and package the semiconductor is moved to the exact specified position without a small error.
In order to accomplish this, ultra-precise motors and transmitters are also required. At the same time, the inside of the equipment should be kept very clean and tidy. Since wafer production is made on the micro- and nano-scale scale, even the smallest dust can affect the quality of the product.
Therefore, most of the fabs have a stable ** ultrapure water device and a dedicated channel for airflow. In addition, since a single pause in the fab required all processes to be restarted, the power supply equipment was redundant.
The construction of a fab is not a semiconductor industry, but also requires the linkage of mechanical, chemical, and electrical fields, which is why the construction of a fab in the United States has been delayed.
Overall, the U.S. desire to revive its own manufacturing industry is obviously unrealistic and unreliable. Even if the United States has the world's largest semiconductor industry, it will not be able to settle the already "globalized" chip production in the United States.