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On December 15, 1999, TSMC broke ground in Hsinchu on Fab 12, its first 300 mm wafer-fabrication project. At the same time, it postponed a second 300 mm project planned for Tainan, then called Fab 7, and said that facility would instead use 8-inch wafers. TSMC renamed the Tainan project Fab 14 in May 2000; later that year, the company described both Fab 12 and Fab 14 as part of its plan for initial volume 300 mm production. The changing plans and fab names matter when reading the announcements together.
What TSMC announced in December 1999
EE Times reported on December 15, 1999, that TSMC had formally broken ground in Hsinchu for Fab 12. The company planned it as a combined manufacturing and leading-edge research and development facility. Its initial process roadmap included 0.15- and 0.13-micron processes, with a future move toward 0.10 micron; planned products included logic, memory and chipsets.
At the time, TSMC planned Fab 12 to reach capacity of 25,000 300 mm wafers per month. EE Times reported an investment of more than $2 billion. Those were announced project figures, not a report of completed construction or achieved production.
Why did TSMC switch the Tainan Fab 7 plan to 8-inch?
The December 1999 EE Times account says TSMC changed the Tainan project from its planned second 300 mm processing plant to an 8-inch fab, which it described as the company’s sixth 8-inch fab. But the account does not give a specific reason for the change. It supports describing the decision as a shift in the announced capacity plan—not attributing it to a particular cost, demand forecast or technical problem.
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The change put two wafer sizes into TSMC’s construction roadmap: a new 300 mm line at Fab 12, alongside capacity for established processes on 8-inch wafers. That is consistent with managing different generations of manufacturing at once. The available announcements do not provide a direct cost-per-wafer comparison, so wafer size alone cannot establish which plan was cheaper or more economical.
How 300 mm and 8-inch wafers compare
“8-inch” refers to a nominal 200 mm wafer, while 300 mm is also called a 12-inch wafer. The larger diameter makes 300 mm a different manufacturing format; it does not mean that every production or cost measure scales directly with diameter. TSMC’s published plans associated Fab 12’s 300 mm line with newer processes and logic, memory and chipset products, while the December 1999 report described the Tainan plan as 8-inch capacity.
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| Planning factor | Fab 12, Hsinchu | Tainan project, initially Fab 7 |
|---|---|---|
| Wafer format in the December 1999 report | 300 mm (12-inch) | Changed from planned 300 mm to 8-inch (200 mm) |
| Role in the announced roadmap | Fabrication plus leading-edge R&D | Additional 8-inch manufacturing capacity in the December account; later company statements placed Fab 14 in the initial volume 300 mm program |
| Published capacity figure | Planned total capacity of 25,000 300 mm wafers per month, as reported by EE Times in 1999 | No capacity figure for the original Tainan project is stated in the cited December account |
| Timing stated in announcements | EE Times reported production scheduled for early 2002; TSMC’s December 2000 release expected production in the fourth quarter of 2001 | TSMC’s May 2000 release expected first wafers from Fab 14 in late 2001; its December 2000 release expected production in early 2002 |
The timing estimates are announcements made at different dates, not proof that production began on either schedule.
Was the Tainan Fab 7 renamed Fab 14?
Yes. TSMC’s May 2, 2000 release said the Tainan project then under construction had been renamed Fab 14. It recorded the project’s groundbreaking in December 1999 and expected its first wafers in late 2001. The same release described Fab 14 and Fab 12 as intended to support TSMC’s first volume 300 mm production.
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Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →That May statement is important context: the December 1999 report describes the Tainan plan as changing to 8-inch, while TSMC’s later release places the renamed Fab 14 in the company’s 300 mm volume-production plans. The announcements capture plans as they evolved; they do not establish that the original switch was the project’s permanent final specification.
There is a second naming trap. In its May 2000 release, TSMC also used “Fab 7” for an acquired facility in Hsinchu, the TASMC fab, and “Fab 8” for an acquired WSMC facility. These are not the Tainan construction project called Fab 7 in the December 1999 report. The location and date are essential to identify which fab a reference means.
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What TSMC reported by December 2000
TSMC said it had delivered customer wafers from Taiwan’s first 300 mm manufacturing line. Its December 2000 release reported Fab 12 and Fab 14 under construction and expected production in the fourth quarter of 2001 and early 2002, respectively. This is evidence of customer wafers being delivered and construction progress—not confirmation that the announced capacity targets had been reached.
The company also published capacity figures for the acquired 8-inch facilities and a broader production forecast. The figures have different scopes and time periods, so they should not be treated as measurements of the Tainan construction project:
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- TSMC expected the acquired TASMC Fab 7 in Hsinchu to have nearly 400,000 8-inch wafers of annual capacity by the end of 2000, according to its May 2000 release.
- TSMC listed capacity for the acquired WSMC Fab 8 as 254,000 8-inch wafers in 2000, rising to 602,000 in 2001, in that May 2000 release.
- In December 2000, TSMC forecast total production of 4.8 million 8-inch-equivalent wafers in 2001. This was a company forecast, not a count of 300 mm wafers alone.
The practical takeaway from the changing plans
Fab 12 was the central first 300 mm construction project announced in December 1999: a Hsinchu manufacturing and R&D facility with a stated plan for 25,000 wafers per month. The Tainan project’s planned format and name changed in subsequent announcements. For an accurate account, call it “Tainan Fab 7” when describing the December 1999 report, “Fab 14” for TSMC’s May 2000 naming, and distinguish both from the acquired Hsinchu facility later called Fab 7.
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