For Immediate Release
UMC 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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