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UMC
SILICON SHUTTLE Preparing for Takeoff in 2001
0.13-micron
Technology on Schedule for Pilot Qualification in December
2000
SUNNYVALE,
Calif, November 20, 2000—UMC
(NYSE: UMC), a world leading semiconductor foundry, today
announced its Silicon Shuttle?program
for 2001, expanding substantially beyond the 2000 program.
The Silicon Shuttle program offers customers the opportunity
to verify their advanced designs and prototypes in UMC silicon,
helping to minimize risks and costs. The new 2001 program
provides greater frequency and a richer offering of technologies,
including several Silicon Shuttle wafers dedicated to mixed
mode and RF CMOS as well as UMC's 0.13-micron technology.
As before, the mask cost is split among multiple customers
by allowing each customer to purchase "seats" on the same
mask, reducing individual customer costs to a fraction of
the total.
Addressing
customers' time-to-market considerations, the Silicon Shuttle
program will leverage UMC's industry-leading manufacturing
cycle times. Silicon Shuttle cycle times in 2001 will
be driven on the UMC "hot lot" schedule (approximately one
day per photolithography layer), enabling fab manufacturing
cycle times of less than four weeks for six-layer metal 0.18-micron
wafers.
"Customers can now
rely on UMC Silicon Shuttle test runs in the same way they
have learned to depend on us for delivering their own dedicated
engineering lots", stated Peter Chang, CEO of UMC. "This
'hot lot' schedule is a first in the foundry industry and
another indication of our commitment to listen and respond
to our customers' needs, in this particular instance for rapid
and affordable prototyping."
New
Silicon Shuttle Options for 2001
Several 0.13-micron technology
Silicon Shuttle wafers for logic and mixed mode technology
are scheduled in 2001. UMC's 0.13-micron technology is generally
considered to be the industry's most advanced, with full copper/low-k
interconnect technology, coupled with transistor switching
delays below 10 picoseconds, enabling microprocessor clock
frequencies to exceed 1 Gigahertz.
Furthermore, extensive analog options will
also be offered on several dedicated 0.13-micron mixed-signal
(digital and analog) wafers, enabling true system-on-chip
(SOC) functionality. These options include UMC metal-insulator-metal
(MIM) capacitors recognized for their outstanding Q-values,
low threshold voltage transistors, and copper inductors.
"The Silicon Shuttle program
opens the door for companies wishing to benefit from the tremendous
advantages our 0.13-micron copper/low-k technology is able
to bring to their designs," said Jim Kupec, senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing for UMC.
" The shuttle enables 0.13-micron
product prototyping to be extremely affordable, making this
advanced process more widely available to a broader range
of new and existing customers."
Several Silicon Shuttle options (low Vt
transistors, MIM capacitors, and inductors) are also available
for Bluetooth, the fast emerging world standard protocol for
connecting wireless peripherals in the consumer and communication
spaces. UMC has worked with Bluetooth OEMs and IP creators
to develop RF CMOS technologies that will make Bluetooth chips
more cost-effective relative to the BiCMOS technology that
Bluetooth samples and prototypes are being manufactured by
currently. Customers and IP providers may leverage this
new technology using the 0.25 and 0.18-micron RF CMOS and
mixed-mode Silicon Shuttle wafers. With several million Bluetooth
units expected to ship in 2002, verifying Bluetooth designs
in silicon at an early stage becomes critical for designers
of this advanced wireless technology.
Note From UMC Concerning
Forward-Looking Statements
Some of the statements in the foregoing
announcement are forward looking within the meaning of the
U.S. Federal Securities laws, including statements about future
outsourcing, wafer capacity, technologies, business relationships
and market conditions. Investors are cautioned that
actual events and results could differ materially from these
statements as a result of a variety of factors, including
conditions in the overall semiconductor market and economy;
acceptance and demand for products from UMC; and technological
and development risks.
Silicon Shuttle is a registered
service mark of UMC. ASICplus is a service mark of UMC.
Editorial
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