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

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (42449)	2/21/2001 1:41:23 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 70976

Winbond wants new site for planned 300-mm fab By Mike Clendenin EE Times (02/21/01 08:41 a.m. PST) TAIPEI, Taiwan — Winbond Electronics Corp, a major maker of DRAMs in Taiwan, has scrapped plans to locate its 300-mm wafer fabrication facility in the Tainan Science Park because of concern over vibrations from a high-speed railway project planned to run near the park. Winbond is worried that vibrations from trains may increase the defect rate at the fab. For that reason, the company is now seeking alternative locations near Tainan that would have water and electricity supplies similar to the science park's. A Winbond spokesman said the company hopes to find a new site soon in time to start construction by the second half of the year. Despite the delay, he said, "we still have the same bottom line and that is we will start all production in 2004." Winbond had originally planned to start construction of the $3.6 billion fab last month and to bring it online in the first quarter of 2004, using a 0.11-micron process to produce 1-Gbit DRAMs. The fab is to have an initial production capacity of ten-thousand 300-mm wafers per month, with a target capacity of 30,000 or more wafers per month. Most of that capacity is expected to go to Toshiba Corp., which currently uses Winbond as a main supplier of DRAMs. Taiwan's high-speed rail project is a $14 billion government-backed venture that is scheduled to come online in 2005. It will enable a one-way 90-minute journey between Taipei and Kaohsiung at about half the fare of a 45-minute plane trip. The route passes through the Tainan park about 300 meters from where the Winbond fab would have been located. "Our vibration consultant did a detailed study and we found out that the situation was not as good as we wished," the Winbond spokesman said. "Our equipment vendors said they could not guarantee that the vibrations would not affect our production. So according to these two results we decided that we must change the site." Even if the vibrations caused the fab's yield rate to decline by only a few percentage points, it would cost the company more than $40 million a year, the spokesman said. Because lithography equipment used for chip production is sensitive, vibrations from the planned train line are a big concern for foundries planning projects in Tainan, an official at the park said. Tainan is on its way to surpassing Hsinchu Science Park as the primary foundry base for Taiwan, and is expected to do so by 2005. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) are planning five 300-mm foundries each in the park. Mosel Vitelic and Silicon Integrated Systems are also planning to locate 300-mm fabs there. At present, TSMC is the only company with a fab in production at the Tainan park. UMC is set to start pilot production there in the third quarter. The railway's impact on other companies will be less than for Winbond because they are more than 500 meters away from the planned station, said Lu Cheng-ching, an official at the Industrial Development Bureau, the government agency that helps develop science parks. "Up to now IDB has only received Winbond's complaint about this issue," Lu said. The bureau is trying to find another site for Winbond, but was uncertain as to how quickly this could be done. Winbond's spokesman said, "We hope we can decide within two months." In related news, Winbond recently said its January revenues were down 31 percent year-on-year to $75.3 million. Subject 50522