Micron Moving to EUV Lithography in Taiwan

[TheLostSwede]

Although Micron is a predominantly US company, it also has some fabs in Japan, Singapore, the PRC and Taiwan, many of which became part of Micron after it bought other companies. Based on Micron's Computex presentation, it's getting ready to upgrade one of its three fabs in Taichung with extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography technology later this year. This is in preparation for the company to move to what it calls its 1-gamma process node for DRAM. Initially this seems to be a R&D node to help the company prepare for a wider rollout of EUV technology. Micron's current DRAM is based on its 1-alpha node and it's planning to move its 1-beta node into volume production next year, in its Taiwan fabs.

Micron's current 1-alpha node is based on DUV technology and was introduced last year, with the company claiming it had a 40 percent improvement in memory density over its previous 1Z node. Micron no longer mentions its die size in the commonly used nanometer measurement, but its 1Z node is said to have been around 11 to 13 nm, so it's likely that the 1-beta node will end up below 10 nm, if its 1-alpha node isn't already below 10 nm. Micron's longer term roadmap also includes a 1-delta node, which was meant to be its first EUV product, but this now seems to have been moved forward to its 1-gamma node. It's likely that Micron will be moving its other fabs to EUV in due time as well, but DRAM has so far not benefitted as much from node shrinks compared to most other types of integrated circuits, so it'll be interesting to see what gains EUV might bring.

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[AnarchoPrimitiv]

Maybe I'm overestimating the threat, or maybe these corporations think they can make deals after the fact, but I would think there would be incentive to limit or even rollback investments in Taiwan with respect to China's continued and open discussion of taking back the island.

It also makes me realize that in the event China does invade, these companies would be more than happy to roll out the red carpet.

 

[MarsM4N]

It's just the typical corporate greed at work, overshadowing the Chinese threat of invading Taiwan. Xi Jingping happy: "See, this is why capitalism is failing."

 

[Gungar]

It's just the typical corporate greed at work, overshadowing the Chinese threat of invading Taiwan. Xi Jingping happy: "See, this is why capitalism is failing."

China is a capitalist country, the difference between Occident and them is their political system. But it's still a capitalist country (it would never had the economic growth without it)

 

[ZeppMan217]

Maybe I'm overestimating the threat, or maybe these corporations think they can make deals after the fact, but I would think there would be incentive to limit or even rollback investments in Taiwan with respect to China's continued and open discussion of taking back the island.

It also makes me realize that in the event China does invade, these companies would be more than happy to roll out the red carpet.

The hi-tech manufacturing hubs and the specialists employed there are the only reasons why Taiwan hasn't been Ukraine'd yet. The only way for China to take over without shooting themselves in the face requires Taiwan to surrender without firing a single shot. So, as long as the cons outweigh the pros for China, there's no reason not to invest in Taiwan. In addition, you get to poach some of the aforementioned specialists and maybe even tech.

 

[trsttte]

Don't underestimate the capacity for mad men to do mad things. If China decides to invade, they'll just invade regardless of the cost. There's a lot of cons, so were for Ukraine, but mad dictators will mad dictate.

Until such time, it's business as usual and Taiwan is a major powerhouse on the semi conductor space. Quite surprising since the place itself lacks many of the resources that would make for a good manufacturing location (remember the power and water outages?) but as long as big engineering talent is there it will continue to be that way.

And btw they're not spinning up a whole new fab there, they are upgrading an existing one (maybe with the help of some poached TSMC engineers?)

 

[R-T-B]

China is a capitalist country, the difference between Occident and them is their political system. But it's still a capitalist country (it would never had the economic growth without it)

A lot of people here don't see nuance like that. They see it as "I don't like it, therefore communism!"

Not saying China is great, but it's not really communist ala even the USSR level, economically speaking.

 

[FreeMarketAnarchist]

Maybe I'm overestimating the threat, or maybe these corporations think they can make deals after the fact, but I would think there would be incentive to limit or even rollback investments in Taiwan with respect to China's continued and open discussion of taking back the island.

It also makes me realize that in the event China does invade, these companies would be more than happy to roll out the red carpet.

You're definitely overestimating the threat. Taiwan is a huge island with a tricky geography more than 100 miles away from the mainland. It would take a very big army to even think of atempting to land there to take it. Beyond that, it's well defended with missile batteries that would decimate any fleet trying to cross that distance and on top of it all you have the US willing to step in in case of aggression. Taiwan is never going to be under atttack, but will most likely be threaten with it for a long long time.

 

[Fourstaff]

This will cement Taiwan as the centre of fab excellence, similar to how ASML become the company of EUV lithography machines.