Infineon, UMC install tools in 300-mm fab venture
Semiconductor Business News
(01/21/03 03:44 p.m. EST)
SINGAPORE--UMCi--the 300-mm foundry venture in Singapore between Infineon Technologies AG and United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC)--today announced it has begun to equip the fab with tools from Applied Materials Inc. and Tokyo Electron Ltd. (TEL).
Current installation will focus on copper-based backend processing equipment, with front-end tools expected to follow later this year as market conditions require, according to UMCi. Initially, UMCi will use copper-enabled tools from Applied and TEL.
The announcement represents a milestone for UMCi. “UMC's first 300-mm fab in Taiwan is currently in volume production for customer products,” said Chris Chi, president of UMCi, in a statement. “With the knowledge and experience gained from that operation, we expect to further improve our technology and cost competitiveness at UMCi, signifying a new area of technological leadership for Singapore's growing semiconductor industry.”
Still, UMCi is off to a somewhat shaky start. Germany's Infineon, Taiwan's UMC, and the Singapore government originally announced the 300-mm foundry venture back in 2000. Located in Singapore's Pasir Ris Wafer Fab Park, the new venture plans to build a 300-mm fab in two phases. The total capacity of the $3.6 billion fab will be 40,000 wafers per month. (see Dec. 14, 2000 story ).
Then, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. last year joined Infineon and UMC in the project. But earlier this month, AMD pulled out of AMD-Infineon-UMC technology development agreement and switched its allegiance to IBM Microelectronics (see Jan. 8 story ).
Last week, Infineon said it remains committed to its technology development and manufacturing partnerships with UMC despite the loss of AMD (see Jan. 15 story ). |
