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TSMC plans to discontinue some EUV lithography machines by the end of the year: Report
According to the latest report, because the utilization rate of advanced process capacity begins to decline, and the decline time will continue for a period of time after the evaluation, TSMC plans to start from the end of the year, Shut down some EUV equipment to save the huge power consumption of EUV equipment.”
According to previous reports, EUV lithography machines require about 30,000 kWh of electricity a day and consume about 10 million kWh of electricity a year. In July this year. Affected by the sluggish demand in the consumer electronics market, many chip manufacturers were cut off by customers, and even TSMC was not spared.
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It also said that many chip prices frequently plunged, and some chip prices were down 80%, and the price of some chips dropped from 200 yuan to 21.5 yuan. Previously, the tide of “lack of cores” swept the world, and many chip manufacturers expanded their production significantly in order to meet customer needs and quickly seize the market.
However, since the beginning of this year, the demand in the consumer electronics market has declined significantly, resulting in an oversupply of related chips, cutting orders and price cuts, and manufacturers canceling production expansion plans.
According to reports, TSMC currently has about 80 EUV lithography machines, which are mainly used for advanced processes such as 7nm, 5nm, and 4nm. Apple may be the only customer left for batch orders. Therefore, TSMC has decided to slow down its expansion progress to ensure that production capacity will not cause cost pressure due to excessive idleness.
According to Bloomberg, ASML’s new-generation EUV lithography machine consumes about 1 million watts of power each, which is about 10 times that of previous generations of equipment. It is expected to account for 12.5% of Taiwan’s overall energy consumption in 2025. A major stumbling block to global carbon emissions.
However, in response to external doubts that the development of advanced manufacturing processes consumes a lot of electricity, TSMC quoted the 2020 Industrial Technology International Strategy Development Institute (ISTI) model derivation analysis results of the Industrial Technology Research Institute, saying that every 1 kWh of production electricity used by TSMC can save the world 4 kWh.
TSMC said that the company continues to promote advanced semiconductor process technology to produce more advanced, more energy efficient, and more environmentally friendly products. In addition, the company actively invests in green manufacturing and implements energy-saving and carbon reduction-related actions, including efforts to optimize the energy efficiency of the process, and at the same time cooperating with machine equipment manufacturers to develop new energy-saving action plans.