BCG (reference: https://www.bcg.com/publications/2022/tracking-next-phase-automotive-semiconductor-shortage) put out a slide deck that suggested, in my words, that zombie fabs are the cause of automotive chip shortage, in analog and MEMS. The main analog players are TI and ADI, and it wasn’t immediately obvious that TI or ADI have a zombie fab problem. Only two of TI’s current fabs, DMOS6 and RFAB1, are non-zombie; the rest are zombies.
https://www.ti.com/about-ti/company/ti-at-a-glance/manufacturing.html
Zombie fab: A fab that first started operating in the 1980s or 1990s, that has 200mm or older equipment. 200mm equipment is not available for sale anymore, so these fabs cannot be expanded, and tool repairs require cannibalization, which slowly reduces the number of functioning tools available. The term zombie refers to an outlier situation in which a fab continues operating with extremely old technology, with steadily diminishing capacity, typically producing a few parts with a long life at a rock bottom price.
TI non-zombie fabs: DMOS6 (Dallas), RFAB(Richardson).
TI non-zombie fabs coming online: LFAB (Utah), RFAB2 (Richardson).
TI is in a transition phase currently. Two new fabs are coming online in 2022 and early 2023. The 150mm fab in Sherman will be shut down in 2024-2025 (about the same time the new fab in Sherman comes online). This suggests other zombie fabs will similarly stop operating as the newer, more sustainable and efficient RFAB2, LFAB and eventually SFAB come online.
Reference: https://techxplore.com/news/2022-07-texas-instruments-phasing-chip-modernizing.html
TI zombie fabs: Dallas (200mm), Sherman (150mm), So. Portland, Freising, Chengdu, Aizu, Miho. Will some of these sites continue on, perhaps gaining strength as new cannibalization opportunities occur from the fab shutdown in Sherman? Or will the efficiency of the new 300mm fabs make these sites uneconomic to continue operating?
https://www.ti.com/about-ti/company/ti-at-a-glance/manufacturing.html
Zombie fab: A fab that first started operating in the 1980s or 1990s, that has 200mm or older equipment. 200mm equipment is not available for sale anymore, so these fabs cannot be expanded, and tool repairs require cannibalization, which slowly reduces the number of functioning tools available. The term zombie refers to an outlier situation in which a fab continues operating with extremely old technology, with steadily diminishing capacity, typically producing a few parts with a long life at a rock bottom price.
TI non-zombie fabs: DMOS6 (Dallas), RFAB(Richardson).
TI non-zombie fabs coming online: LFAB (Utah), RFAB2 (Richardson).
TI is in a transition phase currently. Two new fabs are coming online in 2022 and early 2023. The 150mm fab in Sherman will be shut down in 2024-2025 (about the same time the new fab in Sherman comes online). This suggests other zombie fabs will similarly stop operating as the newer, more sustainable and efficient RFAB2, LFAB and eventually SFAB come online.
Reference: https://techxplore.com/news/2022-07-texas-instruments-phasing-chip-modernizing.html
TI zombie fabs: Dallas (200mm), Sherman (150mm), So. Portland, Freising, Chengdu, Aizu, Miho. Will some of these sites continue on, perhaps gaining strength as new cannibalization opportunities occur from the fab shutdown in Sherman? Or will the efficiency of the new 300mm fabs make these sites uneconomic to continue operating?
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