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

To: StanX Long who wrote (62114)	3/14/2002 11:14:05 PM
From: StanX Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

China foundry says it is first to reach 0.18-micron By Jack Robertson eetimes.com EBN March 14, 2002 (5:35 p.m. EST) SHANGHAI -- Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) here has completed engineering samples of wafers at 0.18-micron processing, claimed to be the first produced in China. Chris Chang, SMIC senior fellow, said full production at the 0.18-micron level could start later this year. He said SMIC doesn't have an export control problem at 0.18-micron. He explained that the firm has its own world-class mask shop on site to make phase shift masks to allow its quarter-micron lithography systems to fabricate 0.18-micron wafers. Two other 8-inch fabs in China, the Motorola plant in Tianjin and Hua Hong NEC Electronics Co. in Shanghai, must get export approval to use foreign vendor photomasks to operate at 0.18-micron capability. Hua Hong NEC officials are hopeful they will get such approval this year. SMIC, which started production in January, is now running 5K wafers a month and will ramp up to 30K a month by the end of the year, Chang said. The Chinese foundry is in the process of installing equipment in a second fab adjoining its initial production facility. When both are fully operational in June of 2003, SMIC will be processing 45K wafers a month, he added. Chang said SMIC is using ASML lithography equipment and also exposure tools from an unidentified Japanese vendor.