UMC moves up 300-mm fab plans, targets production in $3 billion plant during early 2001
A service of Semiconductor Business News, CMP Media Inc.
Story posted 3:15 p.m. EST/12:15 p.m., PST, 7/15/99
HSINCHU, Taiwan--The race is on! Not to be outdone by the
world's largest silicon foundry, United Microelectronics Corp. here is
accelerating its plans for 300-mm wafer processing. Today, UMC
announced it will spend $3 billion to build a 12-inch wafer fab in
southern Taiwan--a move that comes about a month after rival
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) announced a
joint-venture 300-mm fab.
The shell of UMC's costly factory will be finished by the end of next
year in Taiwan's new Tainan Science-Based Industrial Park, said a
UMC executive. It will use 0.13-micron production technology.
Production of wafers will begin in the first quarter of 2001, according
to the UMC executive, who said the overall plan has been
accelerated by about six to nine months.
TSMC said in May that it would spend as much as $2.1 billion to build
its first 12-inch-wafer plant with partner Vanguard International
Semiconductor Corp. in Taiwan. In early June, Intel Corp. announced
it was re-starting its 300-mm development project, including a planned
fab in Oregon. A joint-venture between Motorola Inc. and Infineon
Technologies AG in Dresden, Germany, also said its yields on
300-mm wafers have surpassed 200-mm (see story in the July
publication of SBN).
Today, UMC also named Peter Chang, president of its United
Semiconductor Corp.(USC) unit since 1996, to the new post of CEO
of foundry operations for the Group. Chang, who worked in Silicon
Valley at such chip companies as Zilog, Seeq, and Paradigm, returned
to Taiwan a decade ago to join UMC first as a consultant. He also
will remain head of USC until UMC completes its major consolidation
(see June 14 story). |
