With the Japan government stepping up their support for the local IC manufacturing sector, several new wafer fabs, including a joint venture (JV) between TSMC and Sony, will be constructed in Japan. These fabs are expected to go online sometime between 2022 and 2024, according to industry sources.

The Japan government in late December 2020 approved JPY774 billion (US$6.8 billion) in funding for Japan's local IC manufacturing industry, the majority of which would finance cutting-edge chip manufacturing production capacity. The subsidies also target analog ICs and power management chips, and R&D of next-generation silicon.

Part of the government subsidies for domestic cutting-edge chip manufacturing investment will be spent on the JV fab between TSMC and Sony, which is scheduled to kick off production by the end of 2024, the sources said.

TSMC has struck a deal with Sony under which the pair will jointly set up a fab for 22nm and 28nm process manufacturing in Kumamoto, Japan. "Initial capex in the JV foundry project is estimated at approximately US$7 billion and will have strong support from the Japan government," the companies said when announcing the project.

TSMC is expected to fulfill Sony's orders for CMOS image sensors and automotive MCUs, as well as self-driving chip orders from Toyota, at the Kumamoto fab - the JV between TSMC and Sony, the Japanese business magazine Diamond Weekly reported.

Sony has also expanded its manufacturing site in Isahaya, Japan's Nagasaki prefecture, where it mainly makes CMOS image sensors (CISs) for smartphones. A new fab dubbed Fab5 at the site had been constructed and had begun operations in April 2021, according to Sony.

Sony reportedly continues to expand the production facilities within Fab5 for the production of high-resolution and high-performance CIS, with the additional fab capacities set to come online around the middle of this year.

New memory fab projects set to be carried out by Kioxia (formerly Toshiba Memory) and Micron Technology are also expected to receive government subsidies in Japan, according to industry sources. Kioxia is constructing another 3D NAND flash fab in Kitakami, Iwate Prefecture, while Micron is looking to step up its investment in Hiroshima prefecture where its DRAM manufacturing site is located.

Kioxia and Micron are expected to kick off operations at the new fabs in 2023 and 2024, respectively, the sources said.

Toshiba disclosed in March 2021 plans to expand its Ishikawa site with an additional 12-inch fab for the manufacture of power devices, with mass production scheduled to start in the first half of fiscal-year 2023.

According to SEMI, a total of 27 fabs and lines began setting up equipment in 2021, most of them in China and Japan. Fab equipment spending in Japan is forecast to grow 29% in 2022, when spending worldwide will climb to a new all-time high of over US$98 billion.

By: DocMemory
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