Taipei, Dec. 21, 2012 (CENS)--Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) is farming out chip-testing work to STATS ChipPAC Taiwan Co., Ltd. as its in-house testing capacity has been inundated by flooding orders for 28nm process foundry service.
TSMC is currently the only supplier in the silicon foundry industry to achieve yield rate of higher than 90% with 28nm process, pulling in strong orders from fabless players including Qualcomm, MediaTek, Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom and Marvel.
The foundry is estimated to increase 28nm process capacity by 10-20% in the first quarter of 2013 after doubling the capacity to 46,000 wafers a month in the fourth quarter of 2012 from the third quarter. However, the company has sold out all of the running capacity and the planned capacity.
According to chip-equipment suppliers, Qualcomm and MediaTek are the primary buyers of TSMC’s 28nm process capacity for this quarter. Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom and Marvel have booked most of the foundry’s 28nm capacity for next quarter.
STATS ChipPAC is a long-term strategic partner of TSMC, making it the primary beneficiary of the foundry’s outsourcing plan.
Industry executives estimated thanks to increased orders from TSMC, STATS ChipPAC’s earnings for this quarter to increase from last quarter, with gross margin projected at over 50%, and its earnings for next quarter to remain strong. They put the company’s earnings per share (EPS) for this year at NT$3.5.
The company’s revenue for this quarter is reach NT$300 million (US$10.3 million at US$1:NT$29), more than double NT$101 million (US$3.4 million) it had last quarter.
