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The BIG Boom! (from 18)
Reliable energy is usually considered a
critical need of semiconductor manufac-
turing. In light of that, the selection of
another Texas-based fab, with the state’s
now-wellknown power grid weakness, is
somewhat puzzling. It appears that Tex-
as was able to overcome energy short-
coming, probably through extraordinary
incentives.
Winter storm
In February 2021, storms plunged much
of Texas, including the Samsung Semi-
conductor plant, which produces micro-
processors, into darkness. The storm
shut down Samsung’s Austin plant (and
most other industrial users) and affected
71,000 wafers, Yonhap News reported.
Shutdown for a month
The storm kept the Samsung plant shut-
tered for a month. NXP Semiconductors
also shut down its plants in Austin due to
the storm, as did Infineon Technologies.
Samsung later reported the closure cost
more than $268 million. NXP told the
Austin American Stateman it could lose
up to $100 million in revenue from the
impact. Infineon Technologies did not re-
port any losses, and reopened.
This is an artist’s rendering of TI’s Sherman, Texas site,
location of the company’s new fabs. (Texas Instruments)
JANUARY 2022
Construction at the new Samsung Taylor
site is set to begin the second quarter of
this year with production ramping in 2024.
Samsung’s Taylor selection is good news
for Texas, bad news for the other states.
Practically, Samsung is now locked into the
Austin-area location well into the future.
TI expanding
Recently Texas Instruments, the Lone Star
State’s eponymous and iconic semiconduc-
tor company and analog chip leader, an-
nounced that it will boost its fab capacity
with a new installation in Sherman, Texas,
in the state’s northeast.
The company says this may result in an
investment of as much as $30 billion and
may ultimately host as many as four wafer
fabs and is initially targeting the automo-
tice and industrial chip markets.
Richardson fab
TI is currently spending around $3 bil-
lion on a 300mm wafer fab in Richardson,
Texas. That facility is slated to begin pro-
duction in the second half of this year. The
company predicts product from the Sher-
man fab will roll off the line as early as
2025.
Last June, TI bought Micron Technology’s
Lehi, Utah 300-mm fab for $900 million.
The Lehi fab will be TI’s fourth 300-mm
unit, joining DMOS6, RFAB1 and soon-
to-be-completed RFAB2 in TI’s wafer fab
manufacturing operations.
The acquisition is a strategic move, the
company says, and “Lehi will start with
65-nm and 45-nm production for TI’s
analog and embedded processing prod-
ucts and be able to go beyond those nodes
as required.” Production should begin in
2023.
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