UMCi Announces Equipment Move-in at 300mm Fab

Singapore's first 300mm facility heralds new era of advanced microchip manufacturing

Singapore, January 21, 2003 -- UMCi, the Singapore-based 300mm joint venture between world-leading semiconductor foundry UMC (NYSE: UMC), Infineon Technologies AG, and EDB Investments, the Singapore Economic Development Board's investment arm, today announced that equipment move-in has begun for the state-of-the-art fab beginning with copper processing equipment from US-based Applied Materials (NASDAQ: AMAT) and Japan's Tokyo Electron Limited. This important milestone signifies the beginning of UMC's operation in Singapore and further demonstrates UMC's commitment to 300mm manufacturing. This new manufacturing facility will enable a more cost-efficient manufacturing process, and as Singapore's first operating 300mm fab, will greatly enhance the competitiveness of its high technology industry.

Chris Chi, president of UMCi, said, "UMC is an industry leader in 300mm manufacturing, and today's announcement demonstrates our commitment to providing the manufacturing advantages our customers require to increase their competitiveness. UMC's first 300mm fab in Taiwan is currently in volume production for customer products. With the knowledge and experience gained from that operation, we expect to further improve our technology and cost competitiveness at UMCi, signifying a new area of technological leadership for Singapore's growing semiconductor industry."

UMCi is located in the Pasir Ris Wafer Fab Park and was first announced in December of 2000. Total planned capacity for the facility is 40,000 wafers per month and overall investment is expected to be US$3.6 billion. Current installation will primarily focus on copper backend processing equipment, with front-end equipment expected to follow later this year as market conditions require.

300-mm wafers have more than twice the usable area of industry-standard 200-mm wafers, yielding roughly 2.5 times as many die. These benefits are expected to reduce overall production cost by up to 30 percent.

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