VSMC opens first semiconductor plant in Singapore

SINGAPORE – Taiwan’s Vanguard International Semiconductor (VIS) and Dutch chipmaker NXP Semiconductors have opened their first VisionPower Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (VSMC) microchip fabrication plant here. The US$7.8 billion (S$10.5 billion) fab in Tampines Wafer Park, that has already produced its first sample lot, will create 1,600 jobs and produce 44,000 12-inch wafers a month at full capacity by 2029. A wafer is a thin, round slice of semiconductor material, such as crystalline silicon, from which integrated circuits, also called chips, are fabricated. VSMC will produce chips for mixed-signal, power management, analogue, and interposer applications for high-performance computing, mobile, automotive, and…