With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's (TSMC) new 5nm fab ready to start construction, its partners in the fields of materials analysis, wafer testing and chemical consumables are expected to benefit from the ensuing impressive business opportunities, according to supply chain sources.
The sources said that demand for semiconductor materials analysis has grown all the way along with the advancement of production processes, and the construction of the 5nm fab by TSMC will bring substantial business opportunities to two major Taiwan partners, Integrated Service Technology (iST) and Materials Analysis Technology (MA-tek). Usually, the material analysis service is needed at the very beginning of wafer fabrication equipment installation.
With the costs always soaring with the advancement of production process, precision wafer test is getting increasingly important. As a member of the Grand TSMC Alliance, Chunghwa Precision Test Tech (CHPT) is gearing up to embrace the wafer probing business from the foundry giant's new fab. CHPT now maintains footholds in northern, central and southern Taiwan.
Likewise, high-end chemicals and consumables are also increasingly needed for wafer fabrication as the process advances, and materials channel distributors Topco Scientific and Wah Lee Industrial are poised to benefit from the growing demand for such advanced consumables as photoresist, stripper, slurry, high-end chemicals, and special gases by TSMC for its new fab, the sources said.
