For
Immediate ReleaseUMC
Group Announces Equipment Installation at Newest 8-inch Fab
First equipment for 40k per month capacity
Fab 8F moves in ahead of schedule, in spite of recent earthquake in
Taiwan HSINCHU, Taiwan, October 13, 1999 - UMC Group announced
the move-in of the first pieces of production equipment at its new
8" fab, Fab 8F (formerly called UMC Fab 5). This is an important milestone
that marks the completion of cleanroom construction at the fab located
in the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park.
The equipment move-in is progressing ahead of schedule in anticipation
of trial production in December. Fab 8F is the first of two new UMC
Group fabs that will deliver volume production in the year 2000, making
UMC Group the largest foundry supplier of 0.25-micron and 0.18-micron
technology as it is shipping 1.2 million wafers with geometries of
0.25 micron and below. The second fab, Fab 8C (formerly called USC
2), will begin trial production at the end of Q1 2000. With the introduction
of these two fabs, UMC Group will operate a total of seven modern
8" wafer fabs.
Chris Chi, senior vice president in charge of operations at Fab 8F,
said, "We are moving equipment into Fab 8F two weeks ahead of our
already accelerated schedule. This is a remarkable accomplishment
considering the scale of the recent earthquake in Taiwan. The fact
that none of the UMC Group fabs suffered any significant structural
damage is a testimony to the quality of fab construction techniques
in Taiwan. With this new fab, UMC Group will be better positioned
to respond to the strong demand we are currently experiencing for
our advanced process technologies."
Fab 8F is the newest of UMC Group's fleet of ultra-modern manufacturing
facilities with total investment expected to reach US$1.5 billion.
The fab has a design capacity of 40,000 wafers per month, and will
exceed 20K monthly production by the end of 2000. Fab 8F will ramp
production with UMC Group's state-of-the-art 0.18-micron logic process,
and eventually support 0.15 and 0.13-micron process technology.
Jim Kupec, president of UMC Group (USA) said, "At UMC Group, we are
committed to leading the foundry industry in capacity for leading-edge
process technologies. Fab investment and technology development are
the cornerstones of this strategy. Although UMC Group currently operates
the largest fleet of leading-edge fabs in the semiconductor industry,
we must continually invest in new facilities to enable the rapid growth
of our customers. In particular, we are experiencing a strong demand
for our 0.25-micron and 0.18-micron technologies. The introduction
of volume production for these technologies at two new leading-edge
fabs in 2000 is tremendous news for our foundry customers."
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