Taiwan's Spil Foundry Teams With Ultratech and Xilinxto Deliver an Industry First - 10,000 300 mm Bump Wafers
Tuesday March 11, 8:30 am ET
SAN JOSE, Calif., March 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Semiconductor industry leaders Ultratech Stepper, Inc. (Nasdaq: UTEK - News), Siliconware Precision Industries Co., Ltd. (Nasdaq: SPIL - News; TSE: 2325 - News) and Xilinx, Inc. (Nasdaq: XLNX - News) today announced that Taiwan-based SPIL has become the world's first advanced packaging and test foundry to reach the milestone of processing 10,000 300 mm bump wafers. The significant level of collaboration among the three companies -- a foundry, a fabless design company and a stepper manufacturer -- led to the achievement of this important milestone. In addition to validating the production capabilities of Ultratech's 300 mm system, this milestone demonstrates that 300 mm advanced packaging technology has definitively moved beyond R&D to the production realm.
Commenting on the foundry's milestone achievement, SPIL's Carl Chen, vice president of Manufacturing Group, said, "Last year, we selected Ultratech's Saturn Spectrum 300 bump tool after a stringent evaluation of the available production tools. The Ultratech system met or exceeded the key performance criteria for our 300 mm bumping line. Since then, SPIL has forged a close alliance with Ultratech and Xilinx to ensure continuous improvement. This joint effort was instrumental in helping us process and deliver our 10,000th 300 mm bump wafer."
Ultratech Stepper President and CEO Arthur W. Zafiropoulo stated, "Our Saturn Spectrum 300's advanced technology played a key role in helping SPIL achieve this significant milestone. We believe the combination of our strong business relationship with SPIL and Ultratech's dedicated engineering team helped the foundry meet its exacting requirements and subsequent ramp to production. As a leader in advanced packaging lithography, Ultratech is positioned to support SPIL's high degree of technical manufacturing excellence and help the foundry meet the needs of its customers today and in the future."
The Saturn Spectrum 300's unique broadband 1X optics combined with the system's high wafer-plane illumination intensity creates a cost-effective solution that helps lower the risk for high-volume 300 mm advanced packaging. Leveraging Ultratech's production-proven 1X lithography technology, the Saturn Spectrum 300 maximizes process yield and delivers a high degree of flexibility, throughput and extendibility for bump applications. Unlike contact aligners, which directly contact the wafer during exposure, Ultratech's tool features projection optics that prevent the yield loss caused by direct mask-to-wafer contact. The system also features automatic selection of exposure wavelengths (i-line, gh-line or ghi-line), and a low numerical aperture lens design that provides maximum depth-of-focus for bump applications.
NOTE: Certain of the statements contained herein may be considered forward-looking statements under Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, that involve risks and uncertainties, such as the cyclicality in the nanotechnology and semiconductor industries, delays, deferrals and cancellations of orders by customers, pricing pressures, competition, lengthy sales cycles for the company's systems, ability to volume produce systems and meet customer requirements, the mix of products sold, dependence on new product introductions and commercial success of any new products, integration and development of the laser thermal processing operation, sole or limited sources of supply, international sales, customer concentration, manufacturing inefficiencies and absorption levels, risks associated with introducing new technologies, inventory obsolescence, economic and political conditions in Asia, delays i collecting accounts receivable, extended payment terms, changes in technologies, and any adverse effects of the recent terrorist attacks in the United States on the economy in general or our business in particular. Such risks and uncertainties are described in the company's SEC reports including the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed for the year ended December 31, 2001 and its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed for the quarter ended September 30, 2002.
About SPIL: Siliconware Precision Industries Ltd. ('SPIL') is a leading provider of comprehensive semiconductor assembly and test services. SPIL is dedicated to meeting all of its customers' integrated circuit packaging and testing requirements, with turnkey solutions that covers from design consultations, modeling and simulations, wafer bumping, wafer probe and sort, package assembly, final test, burn-in, through drop ship. Products include advanced leadframe and substrate packages, which are widely used in personal computers, communications, Internet appliances, cellular phones, digital cameras, cable modems, personal digital assistants and LCD monitors. SPIL supplies services and support to fabless design houses, integrated device manufacturers and wafer foundries globally. For further information, visit SPIL's web site at www.spil.com.tw .
About Xilinx: Xilinx, Inc. is the worldwide leader of programmable logic and programmable system solutions. Additional information about Xilinx is available at www.xilinx.com .
About Ultratech: Founded in 1979, Ultratech Stepper, Inc. designs, manufactures and markets photolithography equipment used worldwide in the fabrication of semiconductor and nanotechnology devices. The company produces products designed to substantially reduce the cost of ownership for manufacturers in the electronics industry. Ultratech is the market leader in gold and solder bump lithography, and 300 mm wafer-level chip scale packaging (WLCSP). The company's home page on the World Wide Web is located at www.ultratech.com .
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Source: Ultratech Stepper, Inc. |
