Moonray:
SGS-Thompson upping the ante - 0.15u by the end of 1998.
Plus they will be using Cu
INTC, NEC and IBM also in the 0.18-0.15u range
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SGS-Thomson announces 0.15 micron CMOS process
PARIS, March 3 (Reuters) - SGS-Thomson Microelectronics NV <STM.PA> said on Tuesday it had developed a semiconductor technology that will further reduce the number of chips needed in mobile phones and cut production costs by 30 percent.
The new technology, a 0.15-micron complementary metal oxide silicon (CMOS) process, uses wires as thin as a quarter of a thousandth of a millimetre.
It will be offered to electronics manufacturers at the end of 1998, allowing them to make more sophisticated chips for mobile phones and television decoders.
Joel Monnier, corporate vice-president at SGS-Thomson in charge for research, told a news conference that the new technology would lead to cost savings of 30 percent.
The technology, called HCMOS-8, produces chips made from seven metal layers and operates at a low 1.8 volt. It can be used for very high speed operations at 50 gigahertz.
International Business Machines Corp <IBM.N>, Intel Corp <INTC.O> and NEC Corp <6701.T> of Japan are also proposing technology in the 0.18-0.15 micron range.
SGS-Thomson also said it was ready to start using an earlier technology, called HCMOS-7, at its Crolles site in France. The plant is producing prototypes and will increase output during the year.
HCMOS-7, which uses 0.25 micron technology, has six layers of metal and houses up to 10 million transistors on a single chip. It also includes memory circuits.
"Semiconductors today are extremely complex and to commercialise HCMOS-7 in one year is a great achievement," Monnier said.
Key clients such as France Telecom SA <FTE.PA> and Philips Semiconductors <PHG.AS> are working with SGS-Thomson to develop applications.
A lower voltage version of the technology, HCMOS-7x, will be developed at Crolles using copper. This would pave the way for products such as voice-operated mobile phones built into wrist-watches, Monnier said.
He noted that a GSM mobile phone currently used two chips compared with four in 1996. A set-top decoder for television now uses two chips but used five in 1997. A global positioning system uses one chip with current technology against as many as 11 in 1994.
08:28 03-03-98
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