Stranagor
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- May 11, 2014
- Messages
- 2,187
- Reaction score
- -8
- Country
- Location
SEMICONDUCTORS
Supply chain with locally produced chips key to boosting output
Sony plans to create a network of image sensor plants that procure logic chips from a planned TSMC plant in Kyushu. (Photo courtesy of Sony Group)
KEIICHI FURUKAWA, KOSUKE KONDO and RYOSUKE EGUCHI, Nikkei staff writersDecember 17, 2022 07:33 JST
TOKYO/KUMAMOTO, Japan -- Sony Group will seize the opportunity created by a planned Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. foundry in Japan by setting up an image sensory plant nearby.
Image sensors, used in smartphones and other devices, use logic chips as a key component. By opening a plant that sources the semiconductors from the local TSMC foundry in Kyushu, Sony can build its own supply chain and boost production as competition heats up with Samsung and other rivals.
Sony commanded 44% of the CMOS image sensor market by value in 2021, according to U.K. research company Omdia. But unlike Samsung Electronics, which held an 18% market share last year, the Japanese electronics company lacks in-house capabilities to produce cutting-edge logic chips.
For Sony to achieve its goal of a 60% market share by fiscal 2025, the ability to locally source logic chips from TSMC to ramp up production is critical.
Kikuyo, in Kumamoto prefecture, where TSMC is building its foundry, had been a sleepy town known for sprawling carrot farms. Now, roads are clogged with trucks and other construction vehicles traveling to and from TSMC's construction site. Traffic has become so bad that "I can't tell how long it will take from point A to point B during the morning rush hours," said a local taxi driver.
The prefecture is home to a Sony Semiconductor Solutions plant as well as a regional unit of chipmaking device giant Tokyo Electron, among others. Offering vast land and ample groundwater, Kumamoto holds promise place as a place that can nurture a chip industry.
The prefecture has high expectations for TSMC and Sony to boost the local economy by bringing in workers. TSMC's new plant is expected to boost Kumamoto's economy by about 4.3 trillion yen ($31.5 billion) over the next 10 years, according to Kyushu Financial Group.
ADVERTISING
Sony is looking at Koshi, a city adjacent to Kikuyo, for the site of its planned multibillion dollar plant, slated come online in fiscal 2025 at the earliest.
The move is just the first step in Sony's grand plan to bolster output of CMOS image sensors across Kyushu. At the group's Nagasaki facility, a fab that just opened last year is already undergoing a second expansion to bring additional facilities online as early as next year.
Sony also operates chip plants in Oita and Kagoshima prefectures, also in Kyushu.
This production network will rely on logic chips from TSMC's new fab, slated to begin full production in 2025 and to be run by a joint venture with Sony and Denso.
With the smartphone market having peaked in 2016 and 2017, and many consumers having upgraded to 5G handsets, demand for sensors in phones may slow, forcing Sony to cultivate new buyers for sensors.
The planned plant is expected to churn out sensors for smartphones, but it may have to start producing sensors for autonomous driving and factory automation applications down the road.
On top of this, setting up local infrastructure such as housing and schools for employees and their families will be important, as is talent acquisition.
Japan's chip sector fell behind foreign rivals after failing to keep investing in the development of next-generation products in the 2010s. But the global supply chain crises brought on by the pandemic has built momentum for a domestic revival with the newly formed Rapidus, a government-backed chipmaker set up by such top companies as NEC, Toyota Motor and Sony.
How public-private efforts can develop Kyushu into Japan's "Silicon Island" will hold the key to whether the country's much-anticipated chip-industry renaissance will materialize.
TSMC fab in Japan at center of Sony's image sensor kingdom
Supply chain with locally produced chips key to boosting output
Sony plans to create a network of image sensor plants that procure logic chips from a planned TSMC plant in Kyushu. (Photo courtesy of Sony Group)
KEIICHI FURUKAWA, KOSUKE KONDO and RYOSUKE EGUCHI, Nikkei staff writersDecember 17, 2022 07:33 JST
TOKYO/KUMAMOTO, Japan -- Sony Group will seize the opportunity created by a planned Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. foundry in Japan by setting up an image sensory plant nearby.
Image sensors, used in smartphones and other devices, use logic chips as a key component. By opening a plant that sources the semiconductors from the local TSMC foundry in Kyushu, Sony can build its own supply chain and boost production as competition heats up with Samsung and other rivals.
Sony commanded 44% of the CMOS image sensor market by value in 2021, according to U.K. research company Omdia. But unlike Samsung Electronics, which held an 18% market share last year, the Japanese electronics company lacks in-house capabilities to produce cutting-edge logic chips.
For Sony to achieve its goal of a 60% market share by fiscal 2025, the ability to locally source logic chips from TSMC to ramp up production is critical.
Kikuyo, in Kumamoto prefecture, where TSMC is building its foundry, had been a sleepy town known for sprawling carrot farms. Now, roads are clogged with trucks and other construction vehicles traveling to and from TSMC's construction site. Traffic has become so bad that "I can't tell how long it will take from point A to point B during the morning rush hours," said a local taxi driver.
The prefecture is home to a Sony Semiconductor Solutions plant as well as a regional unit of chipmaking device giant Tokyo Electron, among others. Offering vast land and ample groundwater, Kumamoto holds promise place as a place that can nurture a chip industry.
The prefecture has high expectations for TSMC and Sony to boost the local economy by bringing in workers. TSMC's new plant is expected to boost Kumamoto's economy by about 4.3 trillion yen ($31.5 billion) over the next 10 years, according to Kyushu Financial Group.
ADVERTISING
Sony is looking at Koshi, a city adjacent to Kikuyo, for the site of its planned multibillion dollar plant, slated come online in fiscal 2025 at the earliest.
The move is just the first step in Sony's grand plan to bolster output of CMOS image sensors across Kyushu. At the group's Nagasaki facility, a fab that just opened last year is already undergoing a second expansion to bring additional facilities online as early as next year.
Sony also operates chip plants in Oita and Kagoshima prefectures, also in Kyushu.
This production network will rely on logic chips from TSMC's new fab, slated to begin full production in 2025 and to be run by a joint venture with Sony and Denso.
With the smartphone market having peaked in 2016 and 2017, and many consumers having upgraded to 5G handsets, demand for sensors in phones may slow, forcing Sony to cultivate new buyers for sensors.
The planned plant is expected to churn out sensors for smartphones, but it may have to start producing sensors for autonomous driving and factory automation applications down the road.
On top of this, setting up local infrastructure such as housing and schools for employees and their families will be important, as is talent acquisition.
Japan's chip sector fell behind foreign rivals after failing to keep investing in the development of next-generation products in the 2010s. But the global supply chain crises brought on by the pandemic has built momentum for a domestic revival with the newly formed Rapidus, a government-backed chipmaker set up by such top companies as NEC, Toyota Motor and Sony.
How public-private efforts can develop Kyushu into Japan's "Silicon Island" will hold the key to whether the country's much-anticipated chip-industry renaissance will materialize.
