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

To: Gottfried who wrote (47015)	5/18/2001 5:41:22 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

TSMC to convert half its output to 300mm by '05 By Faith Hung EBN (05/18/01 13:48 p.m. EST) HSINCHU, Taiwan -- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. said it is planning to convert half its capacity to 300mm wafers over the next four years. In addition, an official at the foundry company said it intends to offer the industry's most robust 0.10-micron process technology starting the third quarter of 2002. The plans underscore TSMC's efforts to beat rivals such as United Microelectronics Corp., by attracting more fabless design houses and integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) to its fabs. “Moving up to better technology would help increase customers' reliance on TSMC when the market turns around,” said Barro Liou, an analyst at Prudential Securities Investment Trust & Co. in Taipei. As worldwide demand waned from last year, chip foundries have been speeding up their efforts to land higher-end products during a period of eroding margins and falling sales. A 300mm wafer produces more than twice the output of a standard 200 mm wafer, cutting costs. The 0.10-micron process TSMC expects to deliver is said to include low power, mixed signal/RF and embedded memory options. According to a report from UMC, the 0.10-micron process can make chips that run at 2 Ghz, while the next-generation 0.13-micron runs at about 1.5 Ghz, and the standard 0.18-micron runs at 1.2 Ghz. Earlier this month, UMC said that it's hoping to expand its presence in the MPU business with a deal to build Sparc MPUs for Sun Microsystems Inc., Palo Alto, Calif. Test chips production has started. Advanced Micro Devices Inc., a chipset customer of UMC, is expected to be next to farm out some of its MPU production to the Taiwanese foundry, some analysts said. TSMC is already making microprocessors for Transmeta and Via Technologies Inc. TSMC, Hsinchu, Taiwan, first delivered 300mm wafers from its Fab 6 pilot line last December. Currently, the company is constructing a 300mm wafer facility in Hsinchu with volume production slated for the fourth quarter of this year. Another one is being built in Tainan, hitting mass production in the first half of 2002, said the official. UMC is building a 300mm wafer fabs in Tainan and Singapore. It also has a joint venture in Japan with Hitachi Corp. This year, TSMC is forecasting capacity to rise 32% from a year ago to 4.5 million 8-inch equivalent wafers, while UMC sees capacity growing 17% to 2.8 million 8-inch equivalent wafers.