Infineon plans 300-mm line in Virginia fab expansion
Semiconductor Business News
(12/19/00 07:37 a.m. PST)
RICHMOND, Va. -- Infineon Technologies AG today announced plans to install 300-mm wafer-processing equipment in an expansion shell at its chip-processing plant here. Infineon said the 300-mm wafer-processing line will be installed in a new fab module that is scheduled to begin production 256-megabit DRAMs, using 0.14-micron technology, at the end of the first quarter of 2002.
The new 300-mm frontend will enable Infineon to use the plant's existing 200-mm line for communication IC production, said company officials today. "Infineon will equip the fab step by step in accordance with the demand of our customers," said Andreas von Zitzewitz, chief operating officer of Infineon, based in Munich.
The Infineon Technologies Richmond plant--formerly known as White Oak Semiconductor--will use its 200-mm (8-inch) wafer frontend line for communications ICs when memory devices are moved into the 300-mm (12-inch) module. Infineon said the 300-mm module will increase chip production by more than 30%, and the expansion eventually will create over 1,100 new jobs at the Richmond plant, which was initially set up as a joint venture with Motorola Inc.
The Virginia plant was founded in 1996 as White Oak Semiconductor and began manufacturing DRAMs in August 1998. The 800,000-square-foot facility produces 128-Mbit and 256-Mbit DRAMs with 0.17-micron technology. Currently the fab complex employs 1,700 employees, Infineon said. |
