300-mm fab in Dresden makes first 256-Mbit DRAMs
semibiznews.com
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Semiconductor Business News
(11/04/99, 06:47:28 AM EDT)
DRESDEN, Germany -- The first functional 256-megabit DRAMs have been produced on 300-mm wafers by the Semiconductor300 joint-venture fab operated by Infineon Technologies AG and Motorola Inc. The 300-mm pilot line here today said it made the 256-Mbit memories with a new process technology that has feature sizes less than 0.2 micron.
Infineon and Motorola declared the move to 256-Mbit production as another milestone in their efforts to jump-start 300-mm production. In mid-October, the two partners announced the first products were being shipped from the 300-mm fab, which has been producing 64-Mbit DRAMs with a more mature 0.25-micron process since early this year (see Oct. 13 story).
"The 64-Mbit DRAM in 0.25-micron technology is used as reference in order to compare the results to the mass-volume production of the Infineon factory nearby," said Peter Kucher, general manager of Semiconductor300. "Now the technology has to be driven towards the manufacturing feature size and in parallel the equipment has to be improved to fulfill our requirements.
"We have been able to prove that our concept is right by qualifying the 64-Mbit shipments to customers last month," Kucher added. "We now use the 256-Mbit [process] that Infineon is mass-producing since the middle of the year."
Also today, the Semiconductor300 fab said it has begun using new 25-wafer pods to transport 300-mm wafers in production. These expanded modules, called FOUPS (for front-opening unified pods), are being used to increase volume production of DRAMs. The Dresden fab began production this year using smaller 13-wafer FOUPs.
"The new 256-Mbit chips were produced while the line was upgrading to another automation concept using 25-wafer FOUPs, after having evaluated and tested 13-wafer FOUPs," said Horia Grecu, deputy general manager at Semiconductor300. "The line conversion was completed in less than two weeks, which clearly demonstrates the capability and maturity of load port and FOUP supplies. This is a major step forward for productivity."
FOUPs and air-tight interfaces on production systems protect the large-diameter wafers from airborne particles and contaminants using highly-controlled "mini-environments." The mini-environments potentially ease the task of controlling particles inside fab cleanrooms.
Officials involved with the 300-mm fab would not comment on how quickly the new 256-Mbit process would be ramped into volume on the larger diameter wafers. They said the new sub-0.2-micron process demonstrates the shrink potential of the joint venture's trenched-based DRAM technology.
Infineon (formerly the semiconductor division of Siemens AG) and Motorola estimate that they have spent more than DM 1 billion ($595 million) in R&D expenditures at the Semiconductor300 joint venture. The Dresden pilot-line fab aims to drive down the cost of 300-mm processing to 30-40% the cost of existing 200-mm plants using 0.25-micron processes. |
