Tokyo, Japan, May 29, 2014 – United Microelectronics Corporation (NYSE: UMC; TSE: 2303) ("UMC"), a leading global semiconductor foundry, today held its 2014 Japan Technology Forum to showcase the company’s numerous advantages offered to Japan based semiconductor companies looking to strengthen their global competitive position. UMC’s highlights today include a broad range of process technology solution positioned to enable the IoT (Internet of Things) era, as well as the foundry’s unique open collaboration approach that provides flexibility to offer time and cost saving benefits whether customers are fabless, IDM or system companies.

Po Wen Yen, CEO at UMC said, “The evolution of the horizontal fabless/foundry IC model over the years has led to a much more streamlined supply chain. Under UMC’s open ecosystem, we have taken this approach a step further to serve all types of foundry customers, from those requiring direct IC process porting to customized foundry services or full one-stop turnkey solutions. UMC acts as the primary hub to engage with its supply chain partners, so that Japan-based system companies or fab-lite IDMs have the convenience of using UMC as their single point of contact for their IP, mask, technology, manufacturing, or backend test and packaging needs. This IDM-plusSM model acts like an IDM within UMC, but with risks and costs shared throughout the supply chain instead of one company like a traditional IDM, allowing Japanese IC companies to lower their own cost, engagement effort, and time-to-market.

CEO Yen continued, “UMC has also expanded and reinforced its service offerings beyond traditional consumer end-user devices to include automotive and industrial applications such as MCU and power management. We are suppliers to several leading global automotive chip makers, including successful experience with under-hood applications. We look forward to bringing our knowledge and manufacturing excellence for these applications to Japanese customers as well.”

UMC (NYSE: UMC, TWSE: 2303) is a leading global semiconductor foundry that provides advanced technology and manufacturing for applications spanning every major sector of the IC industry. UMC’s robust foundry solutions allow chip designers to leverage the company’s leading-edge processes, which include 28nm poly-SiON and gate-last High-K/Metal Gate technology, 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. Fab 12A consists of Phases 1-4 which are in production for customer products down to 28nm. Construction has been completed for Phases 5&6, with future plans for Phases 7&8. The company employs over 15,000 people worldwide and has offices in Taiwan, mainland China, Europe, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and the United States. UMC can be found on the web at https://www.umc.com.