300mm Still Moving Ahead

Electronic News, April 23, 2001 by Jeff Chappell

Downturn hasn't dampened conversion from 200mm so far

Chipmakers have been cutting capital expenditures as the second-half recovery that analysts and others predicted earlier in the year recedes into the realm of pipe dreams, but 300mm fab plans continue to progress.

It may even appear that the era of 12-inch wafers is dawning more quickly, but that isn't exactly the case, according to equipment analyst Dean Freeman, a principal analyst with Gartner Dataquest in San Jose. Rather, as chipmakers cut 200mm expansion plans, the percentage of 300mm equipment purchases compared to the total of tool buys is going up. In early 2001, 17 percent of the projected industry capital expenditures, between $6.5 billion and $7 billion, were for 300mm tools. With dramatic cuts in expenditures, at this point one in four tool purchases this year will be a 300mm tool.

"You might see a little bit more being spent on 300mm, but not to the extent that some people have tried to lead the market to believe," Freeman said. Nevertheless, for the most part, semiconductor manufacturers are proceeding with established plans for 300mm pilot and production lines.

"You may see a few people trying to accelerate things," Freeman said, explaining that many chipmakers are buying 300mm equipment now rather than waiting until late in the year. "For the most part, they'll put it in to get it going faster, but the additional capacity won't come until we see the upturn," he said.

Who's on First Silicon?

Munich, Germany-based Infineon Technologies AG has been at the vanguard of the 300mm conversion working with Motorola Inc. Infineon (nyse: IFX) first embarked in 1998 on construction of its SC300 pilot line at its Dresden, Germany, fab, which has since produced production yields in DRAM. The company remains out in front, with three production 300mm fabs underway.

In addition to the expansion of the Dresden fab, Infineon has 300mm fabs under construction or being outfitted, or both, at its Richmond, Va., facility and in Taiwan with its joint venture with Mosel Vitelic Inc. Both the Dresden and Richmond fabs should come on-line in 2002. Infineon is also involved in Taiwanese foundry United Microelectronics Corp.'s (UMC) new 300mm fab in Singapore, which broke ground earlier this month.

UMC has also been at the forefront of 300mm-wafer production. Late last year the first 300mm wafers rolled out of its Trecenti fab, its joint venture in Japan with Hitachi Ltd. UMC also plans to ramp production at its 300mm fab 12A in Taiwan's Tainan Science Park later this year, with a capacity of 40,000 wafers per month.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) also reached a 300mm milestone late last year, delivering 300mm customer wafers from its Fab 6 in Hsinchu, Taiwan. TSMC (nyse: TSM) is currently working to bring its second 300mm fab, Fab 12 in Tainan, up to 5,000 wafer starts per month later this year. Its third 300mm fab, Fab 14, is still on the books, but there are conflicting reports and rumors about its fate in light of the industry downturn.

Dallas-based Texas Instruments Inc. has led the charge to 300mm here in the United States. Its (nyse: TI) DMOS-6 fab in Dallas is currently in pilot-line mode with a capacity of 5,000 wafer starts per month.

Intel Corp., feeling the bite of the current economic conditions, has delayed plans for 300mm expansion beyond its 300mm pilot line fab in Oregon, which it began building in 1998. The company (nasdaq: INTC) has achieved first silicon at the Hillsboro, Ore., facility, but has yet to bring it up to pilot-line production status.

Korean DRAM giant Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. apparently has a 300mm pilot line in operation, Freeman said, but beyond that, the company has been mum on its plans. "My guess is they are running under the radar screen and are going to eventually come out with 30,000 or 40,000 wafer starts per month and blow the lid off the DRAM market," Freeman said.

There are a number of 300mm fab plans slated for 2002 and 2003 for the likes of Royal Philips Electronics, STMicroelectronics and Elpida, the NEC-Hitachi joint venture; but of course, with the industry in a steep downturn, these plans are subject to change. Freeman also suggested that IBM Corp. likely is keeping abreast of 300mm technology, but is characteristically secretive. "You know they are in a pilot line someplace, the question is how much and how many," he said.