Here comes 300 mm business !!
Intel's surprise: plans $2 billion, 300-mm
production fab in New Mexico
By Jack Robertson
Semiconductor Business News
(05/24/00, 03:26:47 PM EDT)
SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Intel Corp. today unexpectedly pulled another new $2 billion fab out
of its hat -- a 0.13-micron process expansion in Rio Rancho, N.M. that is now becoming the
MPU giant's first 300-mm wafer production plant.
The new greenfield fab will have 135,000 sq. ft. of cleanroom space, and will adjoin the
existing Fab 11. However, it will come up from the start as a 300-mm fab, beating the new
Chandler, Ariz., plant as the first 300-mm production site, said Mike Splinter, head of Intel's
technology manufacturing group. Chandler will open as a 200-mm fab late next year and
convert at a yet-undesignated time to 300-mm, he said.
The New Mexico expansion (so far just called Fab 11 Expansion) will make a range of Intel
microprocessors, the same as at the existing facility. Although it will be launched in 2002
with 0.13-micron processing, Intel will have introduced the next-generation shrink
fabrication in other fabs before that time.
As with all Intel 0.13-micron processing, the fab will also use copper interconnect for metal
layers, Splinter said.
The new fab will employ up to 1,000 additional workers beyond the 5,000-person work
force at the New Mexico location now.
Intel has been on a fab expansion spree ever since raising its capital investment budget this
year to $7 billion. SBN has previously reported that Intel has bought additional land in
Hillsboro, Ore., for expansion of its development fab complex there. The firm is also
reportedly considering expansion in Israel. Major fab projects -- either new construction or
extensive upgrades -- are underway at Chandler; Hudson, Mass.; and at the Colorado fab
acquired from Rockwell International. |
