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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (35040)	5/2/2000 1:52:00 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

Applied, Lucent to expand single-wafer processing for greater fab flexibility By J. Robert Lineback Semiconductor Business News (05/02/00, 08:46:47 AM EDT) SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- In an effort to reduce the time it takes to fabricate ICs, Applied Materials Inc. and Lucent Technologies Inc. today launched a partnership to greatly expand the use of single-wafer processing tools in Lucent's next-generation frontend chip-making technologies. Specifically, the partnership aims to replace batch-wafer furnaces, which have slowly given ground to single-wafer systems--such as rapid-thermal processing (RTP) tools--but continue to be used in advanced chip fabs. During last month's Fourth Annual Fab Management Forum in Grenoble, France, Applied Materials managers argued that the use of single-wafer processing tools across an entire wafer fab would reduce work-in-progress (WIP) by 30%, lowering cost and speeding the time it takes to ship semiconductors to the marketplace. At issue is whether or not it's feasible for high-speed RTP tools to replace batch-wafer furnaces, which can handle a couple hundred substrates at a time, but requiring loading and unloading times and taking two to three hours to complete high-temperature cycles. Accuracy in fast-ramp heating and cooling plays on the side of RTP, according to single-wafer processing advocates. Lucent, based in Murry Hill, N.J., sees a huge potential for cycle-time reduction in wafer fabs with expanded use of RTP and single-wafer processing. "Reducing fab cycle time is a key element of Lucent's business strategy. Replacing long furnace process steps with short single-wafer processes is an obvious place to start," said Gregg S. Higashi, Lucent's technical manager of frontend process development, who initiated this project. "We estimate that we will be able to ship wafers days earlier by using single-wafer processing," he said. "This could put our products into our customers' hands sooner while also reducing inventory." Applied offers a range of single-wafer process technologies, including RTP and systems for growing oxide thin films as well as deposition of silicon nitride and polysilicon thin films. Lucent said it will evaluate process quality and reproducibility, manufacturing cycle time, throughput, and total cost of ownership for potential application in its next-generation chip technology. Under the program, Lucent will initially evaluate several single-wafer thermal process steps in its pilot line using Applied's RTP in-situ steam generation (ISSG) technology for gate dielectric, shallow trench isolation (STI) liner, pad, and other oxide films. Lucent will also use Applied's RTP Centura for implant and STI anneals, the SiNgen single-wafer LPCVD nitride chamber for spacer and pad nitride applications, and integrated poly and gate-oxidation process chambers for polysilicon deposition of the transistor gate. "Single-wafer technology is especially important to foundries and to ASIC suppliers like Lucent, who need to reduce development and production cycles to keep up with today's increasing demand for new generations of chips," said Chris Gronet, vice president and general manager of Applied's Transistor Gate and Substrate Product Groups in Santa Clara. "We expect this concept to become more critical as furnaces continue to cause bottlenecks in the process flow."

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (35040)	5/2/2000 1:53:00 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 70976

TSMC renames new fabs, plans 300-mm production in Fab 14 at end of 2001 Semiconductor Business News (05/02/00, 10:46:35 AM EDT) HSINCHU, Taiwan--Taking care of a little housekeeping in its aggressive expansion and acquisition of wafer fab capacity, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. here today renamed several new chip-processing plants. Even TSMC officials say they have had a hard time keeping up with the names of new plants being added to the foundry company's capacity in 1999 and 2000. TSMC's planned 12-inch wafer fab, now under construction in Tainan, Taiwan, has been renamed Fab 14 from its original designation as Fab 7. This facility is currently slated to become TSMC's first high-volume 12-inch wafer fab, starting operations in Tainan's Science-based Industrial Park during the fourth quarter of 2001. The initial capacity of Fab 14 has not yet been determined, according to TSMC. The company is also building another 12-inch (300-mm) wafer production plant, designated Fab 12, in Hsinchu. This facility is on a site where memory maker Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp. is also planning to set up a 300-mm fab, which will share infrastructure with TSMC's frontend manufacturing line. Fab 12 is now slated to become operational in the first quarter of 2002. The initial target for annual capacity in Fab 12 has not been determined, said TSMC. The pending acquisitions of TSMC's joint venture with the Acer Group and Worldwide Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (WSMC) will also give the company two existing 8-inch wafer-processing plants, which are now being called Fab 7 and Fab 8, respectively. The merger of WSMC and TSMC-Acer Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (TASMC) are slated to be completed on June 30. By the end of 2000, the TASMC "Fab 7" facility is scheduled to be capable of processing 400,000 eight-inch wafers a year with 0.25- and 0.22-micron processes. The WSMC "Fab 8" plant is expected to be at an annual capacity of 254,000 eight-inch wafers with 0.25- and 0.18-micron technology. In 2001, the Fab 8 facility will have an annual capacity of 602,000 wafers, TSMC said. "In 1999, TSMC's annual capacity was 1.8 million eight-inch equivalent wafers. By the end of 2000, that number is expected to reach 3.4 million wafers," said F.C. Tseng, president TSMC. "This increase is in direct response to the industry's rising demand for pure-play foundry services. TSMC has been aggressively expanding to meet that demand through fab creation, mergers, and capital investments. In 2000 alone, TSMC's capital expenditures will rival nearly every other semiconductor manufacturer in the world." In 2000, TSMC is planning $4.7 billion in investments to expand fab capacity in its own facilities as well as joint ventures and affiliated plants that provide processed wafers to foundry customers (see April 25 story). --J. Robert Lineback reporting from U.S.