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The
plans mark an ongoing expansion for the Shanghai-based company,
which is under U.S. sanctions related to ties to China's
military, which the company denies. It is a key part of China's
drive to build up its domestic chip sector.
According to a late Friday filing, the new fab will have a
production capacity of 100,000 12-inch wafers per month serving
process nodes between 28 nanometres and 180 nanometres.
The plant will be run as a subsidiary of SMIC in cooperation
with the government of Tianjin's Xiqing district, and will have
an initial registered capital of $5 billion, the filing said.
The company did not say when the plant would go into production.
Backed partially by government funds, SMIC is the leading chip
manufacturer in China. While it supplies global customers
primarily making trailing-edge chips, it lags behind Taiwan
Semiconductor Manufacturing Co in technology prowess and market
share.
The company has been expanding capacity as Washington and
Beijing compete over access and development of chip technology.
SMIC said in late 2020 it would build a 12-inch fab in Beijing,
followed by announcements last year of new fabs in Shenzhen and
Shanghai.
The Tianjin fab will be the fourth the company has under
construction in China, complementing three 8-inch fabs and three
12-inch fabs in operation in the country.
In late 2020 Washington imposed sanctions on SMIC that block
access to certain manufacturing equipment, effectively barring
the company from making chips produced using 7-nanometer process
nodes.
While the sanctions are intended to prevent SMIC from producing
advanced chips at the industry standard, some analysts have
found signs that SMIC has nevertheless managed to produce
7-nanometer chips.
(Reporting by Josh Horwitz; Editing by David Goodman and William
Mallard)
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