TSMC First Foundry to Complete a 300mm, 0.13-micron All Copper Process Pilot with Reasonably Good Yield
Business Editors/High-Tech Writers
HSINCHU, Taiwan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 18, 2001--Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (NYSE:TSM), the world's leading semiconductor foundry, is the first foundry to complete a 300mm pilot lot for 0.13-micron, all copper process of a 4Mb SRAM test vehicle in early April 2001 and demonstrated reasonably good yield. Following the successful pilot, TSMC plans to test a few customers' 0.13-micron products this month.
"TSMC continues its effort to provide customers with the most advanced and most comprehensive technologies and services. The 300mm manufacturing at 0.13-micron technology have again demonstrated TSMC's leading position in the foundry industry," said Dr. F C Tseng, president of TSMC.
TSMC owns Taiwan's first and only 300mm production facility to date. At the end of 2000, TSMC delivered the industry's first 300mm customer's wafers at 0.13-micron technology. In early April of 2001, TSMC marked another major milestone by successfully producing 0.13-micron 4Mb SRAM test chips on 300mm wafers with reasonably good yield. TSMC plans to run 300mm customer 0.13-micron wafers shortly for yield learning.
Dr. N S Tsai, senior director of TSMC's 300mm project, said, "The 300mm technology will be the new workhorse technology. We are very pleased that the 300mm, 0.13-micron all-copper pilot lot yielded well. This clearly marks TSMC's industry leading position for the 300mm era, which ultimately will benefit our customers."
0.13-micron Process Milestones
TSMC delivered the foundry industry's first 0.13-micron customer products in the fourth quarter of 2000. Since then, six customers have received fully functional devices, including developers of MPUs, communications devices and FPGAs. In addition, 12 customer products have been delivered and are in various stages of testing. TSMC expects 40 customer tapeouts by the end of June 2001, in addition to some 54 CyberShuttle tapeouts.
300mm Milestones
TSMC delivered the industry's first customer production 300mm wafers from its Fab6 300mm pilot line in December of 2000. The company is currently constructing two dedicated 300mm production facilities (Fab12 in Hsinchu and Fab14 in Tainan). Fab12 is expected to enter risk production in the fourth quarter of 2001 and Fab14 clean room construction will be finished at the end of 2001.
About TSMC
TSMC is the world's largest dedicated semiconductor foundry, providing the industry's leading process technology, library and IP options and other leading-edge foundry services. TSMC operates two six-inch wafer fabs and six eight-inch wafer fabs. The Company also has substantial capacity commitments at two joint ventures fabs (Vanguard and SSMC) and WaferTech. In 2000, TSMC produced the foundry industry's first 300mm customer wafers and began constructing two dedicated 300mm fabs. TSMC's corporate headquarters are in Hsin-Chu, Taiwan. More information about TSMC is available through the World Wide Web at tsmc.com. |
