TSMC and other companies' quick response highlights what the chip industry has learned in the past 25 years.   TSMC said that the equipment of its wafer fabs in Taiwan has basically resumed operation and it is fully assessing the impact of the earthquake; it maintains the annual revenue guidance given at the January meeting. TSMC said that it is still assessing the impact of the earthquake and has resumed construction of new plant areas, with the overall equipment recovery rate of wafer fabs reaching more than 80%. In addition to TSMC, there are semiconductor factories such as UMC, World Advanced, and Powerchip in Taiwan. Although most factories are not close to the epicenter, many companies said that they have evacuated some factory employees and closed some factories for inspection. TrendForce Jibang Consulting has updated the dynamics of various semiconductor factories after the earthquake. Since most wafer foundries in this earthquake are located in the area of ​​​​magnitude 4, and most semiconductor factories in Taiwan are built to high standards, the internal shock reduction measures are at the world's top level, and most of them can reduce the shock by 1 to 2 levels. Judging from the magnitude of this earthquake, almost all of them were shut down for inspection and then resumed work quickly. Even if there were emergency shutdowns or furnace tubes damaged by the earthquake, resulting in online wafer fragmentation or damage and scrapping, since the average capacity utilization rate of mature process plants is currently 50-80%, most of the losses can be quickly replenished after resuming work, and the capacity loss is considered to have a minor impact. Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Intel, a major American chip manufacturer that has always had close ties with Taiwanese factories, also specifically called out to Taiwan through the Internet and reiterated that "my thoughts and prayers will be with everyone in Taiwan", which instantly attracted attention from all walks of life. Gelsinger pointed out that after the devastating earthquake in Taiwan, our top priority is to ensure the safety and well-being of our employees and their families, as well as many partners and customers throughout the region. He also called out to the public, letting everyone know that Intel Corporation will always be ready to support you and help the entire environment recover slowly in the coming weeks and months. On the 3rd, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake occurred in Taiwan, China, and aftershocks continued throughout the day, causing panic among the people. The worst disaster was in the epicenter of Hualien. Kissinger's immediate post also attracted widespread support from all walks of life. Matthew Rosenquist, a former Intel board advisor, also shared that his proudest memory of Intel's leadership was that the company always silently provided assistance and completed deployment when natural disasters occurred in various circles. He emphasized that this was not a marketing strategy, but a true partner dedicated to helping mankind, and he also hoped that they would continue to support such a tradition. He believes that praying when something happens is worthy of praise, and lending a helping hand when help is needed can change lives.  When an earthquake strikes If an earthquake of magnitude 4 or above occurs somewhere in Taiwan, the first thing chipmakers do is evacuate all employees in the cleanroom and factory and wait for the main shock to stop. The next step involves remotely monitoring the factory through a central control system to detect fires, toxic gases or any chemical leaks that could cause serious accidents. If the situation is safe, the equipment, facilities and materials teams can return to the designated site and begin physical inspections of the equipment. The first step is to determine whether the wafers being processed in the equipment are intact. If so, they can be reworked later. However, if the wafers are broken, engineers need to carefully clean the equipment room and then restart the machine. Next, they run a batch of control wafers to ensure that the machine is operating normally before putting the machine back online. These procedures must be carried out meticulously, and full resumption of production takes time. "It may take from a few hours to a few days or even weeks for all processes to return to normal, depending on the severity of the situation," said an equipment supplier manager. The most important thing is that all types of lithography machines generally take longer to restart than other chipmaking equipment, industry insiders said. "Recalibrating the deviation of lithography machines after an earthquake is always a challenge. You need a lot of support from equipment suppliers, using specific tools. It requires extremely high precision, and you can't rush to restore the lithography machine. ” This is where the work ethic that Taiwanese engineers are proud of comes in. An equipment engineer said: "If it happens on holidays, or it is not normal office hours, all employees will return to the factory immediately in less than an hour." He also recalled that he once worked non-stop for 48 hours to ensure production efficiency. Ensure that the station he is responsible for is restored to normal operation in another incident. “The rapid recovery is also closely related to the work culture of Taiwan's chip industry...……” After the earthquake on Wednesday, factories, equipment and material engineers and suppliers worked overtime during the national holiday to get production back to normal as soon as possible."We have to conduct many checks and recalibrations. I can assure you that all engineers in the Taiwan region of China are on duty, like wasps swarming out of their nest to help get the production tools back online," said a manager at another equipment supplier.

Preparing for the worst-case scenario:

Earthquakes are also a realistic issue in Japan, a country that is striving to rebuild its chip industry. TSMC recently opened its first factory in Kumamoto, Japan, an area that had suffered a magnitude 7 earthquake in 2016. More recently, on New Year's Day, a severe earthquake occurred in the Noto Peninsula of Japan.

Although some level of production disruption is inevitable, experts say that Japan is relatively well-equipped to keep its chip production lines running.

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Senior analyst at Toukai Tokyo Intelligence Laboratory, Yugo Tsutsumi, stated that the risk of earthquakes in the most seismically active country in the world is unlikely to be a major obstacle to Japan's semiconductor industry revival. He said that most chip manufacturers have "structures to mitigate earthquakes for chip-making machinery and factories, especially in the front-end processes where they have their most expensive machines."

He added that companies have learned from experiences in 1999 and 2016, and pointed out that TSMC's Kumamoto factory may adopt the same level of disaster countermeasures, as it is a "clone of TSMC's factories in the Taiwan region."

While the huge tsunamis triggered by earthquakes could be a risk, Tsutsumi noted that chip factories are rarely located near the coast.

Experts say there is a 70% to 80% chance of a magnitude 8 to 9 earthquake occurring along the Nankai Trough in southeastern Japan within the next 30 years.

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