TECH NEWS – TSMC, the Taiwanese chipmaking giant, aims to maintain its dominant position in the market. However, as technology advances, this will become more difficult.
The explosive growth in demand for TSMC’s CoWoS technology, coupled with a resulting shortage, has allowed alternative suppliers and technologies to gain ground. One technology frequently mentioned in supply chain reports is Intel’s EMIB-T. EMIB-T differs significantly from CoWoS in terms of its structure. EMIB-T uses wires and circuits called “bridges,” which are placed inside the organic substrate. Components, such as logic and memory chips, are mounted onto these bridges. In contrast, CoWoS relies on an interposer that facilitates communication between memory and logic chips and the main computer. The interposer consists of vertical circuits called “through-silicon vias” (TSVs). Their high density enables greater bandwidth and lower latency, making the interposer suitable for high-performance AI chips, such as those from Nvidia.
According to UDN, citing analysts, TSMC plans to increase its CoWoS capacity to 260,000 wafers per month by the end of 2028. The company’s capacity is projected to reach 130,000 wafers per month by the end of this year. Specifically, the expansion will focus on manufacturing capacity at the Arizona facility and the AP7 plant in Taiwan. Although TSMC’s Arizona facility can manufacture the latest chip products, they must be shipped to Taiwan for packaging because the company’s full production capacity is on the island. Analysts are also speculating about Intel’s EMIB-T capacity. They estimate that, when converted to the CoWoS equivalent of 12-inch silicon wafers, EMIB-T capacity could range from 15,000 to 20,000 wafers per month in 2027 and from 40,000 to 45,000 wafers per month in 2028.
The EMIB-T architecture makes the technology suitable for manufacturing custom AI chips, like those being developed by Google and Amazon. According to Taiwanese analysts, the shortage of TSMC’s CoWoS products has increased demand for the packaging services of other companies, such as Amkor, UMC, and ASE.
