90-minute power outage in Taiwan threatens chip manufacturing

A major power outage affected the regions of Taiwan where semiconductor factories are located on March 3, 2022. A power plant malfunction caused a sudden drop in power generationcausing power grid failures and leading to blackouts that lasted around 90 minutes.

This may not sound like much, but for a semiconductor manufacturing plant that has limited power backup and time-consuming processes, 90 minutes is an eternity.

Taiwan News reports that a Taipower plant in Kaohsiung suffered a malfunction, prompting an emergency shutdown.

In the wake of this power outage, major semiconductor companies released their assessments of how this affected them within days.

• TSMC he said he did not face any outage, there was a manageable effect on the UMC plant in Nanke. Some TSMC plants experienced a voltage drop that lasted 400 to 1,000 ms, and the company is evaluating how this affects them. Factory equipment at the UMC Nanke plant is affected, but has been restarted. TSMC stressed that the impact on its production should be negligible.

• The panel maker Innolux faced a brownout or shutdown, and the company is assessing its impact. The company was running on backup generators.

• Yageo Kaohsiung, which makes passive components, said it faced an outage, which was dodged by its backup power system. His production line is not as sensitive to interruptions as silicon manufacturing.

• DRAM Manufacturers Nanya y Winbond They reported no impact.

• PCB Manufacturers Taihong, HannStar, etc., located in the Kaohsiung area, report plant closures due to disruption and “light” waste. The company has enough inventory to cover the shortfall.

• Zhengwei Tucheng with power plugs, it lost power for 1.5 hours, but the production line was not affected. Connectors are low-tech items.

• The Nanzi Science and Technology Park, an SEZ that is home to many companies, reported power outages.

Source: TaiwanNews