Tong Hsing Electronic Industries, which supplies ceramic substrates and backend services for CMOS image sensors (CIS) and other niche ICs, has held a beam-raising ceremony for its new plant in Taoyuan, northern Taiwan and expects the new facility to commence operations in 2022.

The new plant is slated for completion next April and will start volume production by the end of 2022 at the earliest after clearing validations by clients. It will focus on packaging automotive CMOS image sensors (CIS), mixed modules and other new chip solutions including third-generation semiconductor SiC and GaN power chips and RF modules, the company said.

Tong Hsing now operates three plants in Taiwan and one in the Philippines, and the floor area of the new plant equals the aggregate of the four existing factories, with its overall production capacity sufficient to meet demand in the next 5-10 years, the company continued.

Its plant in Longtan, northern Taiwan, is dedicated to handset CIS chip probing and wafer reconstruction. Its Hsinchu fab mainly handles assembly and final test of automotive CIS at a monthly capacity of 10 million units, and is expected to reach full capacity utilization early 2022.

Its plant in Yingge, New Taipei, and the one in the Philippines are engaged in assembly of ceramic substrates, RF modules and mixed modules. But part of the Yinnge plant's assembly lines for RF and mixed modules will be shifted to the new plant in Taoyuan.

Company president Reinz Ru has expressed optimism that its third-quarter 2021 revenues will continue to grow sequentially, but remains cautious about business prospects for the fourth quarter and the first half of 2022 though most OSATs agree that their capacity supply will remain short of demand for a while.

Ru said Tong Hsing has not suffered much from chip shortages, but its clients in Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines have been significantly impacted and will take time to recover.

He also noted that Tong Hsing will continue to expand capacity for ceramic substrates needed to process LED and CIS chips for EV and other automotive applications.