HSINCHU, Taiwan, September 8, 2010 - UMC (NYSE: UMC; TWSE: 2303), a leading global semiconductor foundry, received the Industrial Technology Advancement Award in the category of Outstanding Enterprise Innovation Award from the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

This honor underscores UMC's outstanding achievements in technology innovation such as its leading manufacturing processes. UMC manufactured the foundry industry's first fully functional 28nm SRAM chips in October 2008 and presented a paper on a new hybrid High-K/Metal Gate approach for 28nm at 2009 IEDM. In addition, UMC's dual approach for its 28nm technology addresses different market applications. The foundry uses conventional silicon gate/silicon-oxy-nitride gate oxide technology for its Low Power process, which is ideal for portable applications such as mobile phone ICs, while the HK/MG stack is primarily aimed at speed-intensive products such as graphics, application processor, and high-speed communication ICs.

Mr. S.C. Chien, vice president of Advanced Technology Development at UMC, said, "We are honored to receive this Outstanding Enterprise Innovation Award. Innovation has always been one of UMC's key strengths. As semiconductor technologies evolve quickly, in addition to independently developing our foundry processes, UMC will also develop future technologies by cooperating with other leaders such as SEMATECH, advanced equipment suppliers, universities and research institutes around the globe, especially for 22nm and below. Going forward, UMC will continue to innovate and evolve by investing funds, manpower and intellectual property in Taiwan. This corresponds with our strategy of ‘Investing in Taiwan as a base in establishing a global presence."

The Outstanding Enterprise Innovation Award honors domestic enterprises with outstanding performance in innovation development. In addition, the award encourages enterprises to aggressively enhance their innovation capabilities to help evolve and transform industries and establish industry models. The award criteria evaluate overall developmental performance of enterprises, including the resources, management, and performance of innovation development. The judging panel consists of industry, government, academic and research representatives.

UMC (NYSE: UMC, TSE: 2303) is a leading global semiconductor foundry that provides advanced technology and manufacturing services for applications spanning every major sector of the IC industry. UMC's customer-driven foundry solutions allow chip designers to leverage the strength of the company's leading-edge processes, which include production proven 65nm, 45/40nm, mixed signal/RFCMOS, and a wide range of specialty technologies. Production is supported through 10 wafer manufacturing facilities that include two advanced 300mm fabs; Fab 12A in Taiwan and Singapore-based Fab 12i are both in volume production for a variety of customer products. The company employs approximately 13,000 people worldwide and has offices in Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Europe, and the United States. UMC can be found on the web at http://www.umc.com.