INDUSTRY NEWS

TSMC breaks new ground

TSMC has broken ground for a fab that is slated to begin processing 12-in. wafers early in 2002. The Taiwanese chipmaker's first 300-mm foundry, Fab 12 will be located in Hsinchu Science-Based Industrial Park. The fab initially will operate a pilot line processing devices with 0.15- to 0.13-µm linewidths, graduating eventually to 0.10-µm linewidths. Fab 12 will produce logic, memory, and chipset devices. Total capacity will be 25,000 12-in. wafers per month. TSMC says it plans to use some of the fab's capacity to conduct R&D into sub-0.10-µm process technologies.

Firms launch 300-mm venture

Hitachi and United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) say they will build a $578-million plant for manufacturing 300-mm wafers. The facility will be based in the N3 building at Hitachi's LSI manufacturing site in Hitachinaka-city, Ibaraki prefecture, Japan. The chipmaker will have a 60% equity stake in the venture, with Taiwan-based UMC holding the remaining 40%. The launch is set for this month. Pilot production is scheduled to begin in January 2001, and mass production of 300-mm wafers and 0.18-µm processing is set for April 2001.

Vendor serves growing market

GW Associates of Sunnyvale, CA, has responded to the accelerated pace of 300-mm production by introducing a component object model-based server for factory-host systems. The vendor's GW SECServer is compatible with systems running the Windows NT operating system. The server's open architecture complies with International Sematech's I300I communications interface requirements and CIM framework, the company says. GW Associates notes that factory integration is one of the critical requirements identified by SIA and International Sematech for a successful transition to 300-mm wafer processing.

MicroHome | Search | Current Issue | MicroArchives
Buyers Guide | Media Kit