Powerchip, Mitsubishi widen pact
Sandy Chen
Taipei, Taiwan- Taiwan's Powerchip Semiconductor Corp. will expand its relationship with Mitsubishi Electric Corp.-as well as its overall foundry effort-by making Direct Rambus DRAM chips for the Japanese company.
Powerchip plans to produce Mitsubishi's 144-Mbit Direct RDRAM devices at its 8-in., 0.35- to 0.25-micron wafer fab in Hsinchu.
Mitsubishi will begin shipping its Direct RDRAMs under its own logo this summer, according to Michael Tsai, senior vice president of Powerchip, a joint DRAM manufacturing venture between Taiwan's Umax Group and Japan's Mitsubishi and Kanematsu Corp.
"This year, we will only have a small amount of capacity for Direct RDRAMs," Tsai said. "But it is our plan to have enough capacity for Direct RDRAMs in place to meet market demand by the year 2000. We will only make these DRAMs on a foundry basis for Mitsubishi. We do not intend to license the technology from Rambus until Rambus owns a 40% or 50% share of the market."
Still, Taiwan is looking to become a major producer of high-speed Rambus memory. Other local foundries-including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. and United Microelectronics Corp.-have secured licenses to make select Rambus-based products for customers.
And a few of Taiwan's DRAM houses, including Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp. and Winbond Electronics Corp., plan to ship Direct RDRAMs this year or next, sources said.
Powerchip, formed in 1994, has been a key manufacturing partner for Mitsubishi's DRAM efforts, although the two companies recently altered their original charters.
In the past, Powerchip made Mitsubishi-designed 64-Mbit DRAMs only on a foundry basis for the Japanese company. Mitsubishi sold most of the output from the venture under its own logo. Umax, one of Taiwan's largest scanner and PC makers, also used the Powerchip-produced DRAMs internally.
Recently, though, Powerchip has begun selling some of the 64-Mbit DRAMs under its own logo, and is also offering foundry services for other chip customers besides Mitsubishi.
At the same time, Powerchip is moving beyond its 64-Mbit DRAM roots. In addition to its Direct RDRAM products, Powerchip plans to make 128-Mbit SDRAM products on a foundry basis for Mitsubishi.
The company's fab can produce 21,000 wafers per month. About a third of Powerchip's capacity is devoted to foundry customers. By year's end, the fab will be able to process wafers at 0.18 micron and below.
|
