SINGAPORE -- Germany's Infineon Technologies AG and Taiwan's United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) today announced plans to form a 300-mm silicon foundry company in Singapore. The total capitalization of the venture is $3.6 billion.
UMC will apparently be the majority shareholder in the company, while Infineon will take a minority stake in the venture, according to officials at a press event today.
Located in Singapore's Pasir Ris Wafer Fab Park, the new venture plans to build a 300-mm fab in two phases. The total capacity of the fab will be 40,000 wafers per month.
The venture will focus on making system-on-a-chip products based on 0.13- to 0.10-micron technologies. The process technology, dubbed Worldlogic, is jointly developed by UMC, Infineon and IBM.
Groundbreaking for the fab is scheduled for the first quarter of 2001. The equipment will be moved into the fab by the third quarter of 2002.
"The Singapore government has shown tremendous vision in its commitment to attracting world leading high technology companies, and we believe that Singapore provides a viable location for wafer foundry services," said John Hsuan, chairman of UMC, based in Hsinchu.
The move represents UMC's third 300-mm fab. Recently, Trecenti Technologies, a joint 300-mm silicon foundry venture in Japan between UMC and Hitachi Ltd., began to produce its initial wafers.
In addition, UMC also is building a 300-mm wafer fab in the southern Taiwan city of Tainan.
Infineon also has a 300-mm fab in Germany. At the same time, Infineon has a joint DRAM venture in Taiwan with Mosel Vitelic Inc. The venture, called ProMos Technologies Inc., has an 8-inch fab in Hsinchu, with plans to build a 300-mm plant as well.
The German company is also expanding its ties with UMC. "Our successful development partnership with UMC is being expanded into a manufacturing alliance to produce advanced wireline and wireless communications ICs using 300-mm technology," said Andreas von Zitzewitz, chief operating officer of Infineon.
