UMC starts construction on $5B 300mm fab

By Colleen Taylor -- 1/8/2007

Taipei, Taiwan-based semiconductor foundry United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) today announced that the construction for its 300mm Fab 12B is now fully under way. According to the foundry, total investment for Fab 12B, which will be in southern Taiwan's Tainan science park, will be approximately $5 billion, with a maximum designed monthly production capacity of 45,000 wafers.

The construction begins as UMC's new R&D center for nanometer technologies, which the company touts as the first of its kind in the Tainan Science Park, is entering its final stages of construction for its scheduled completion in March. The two new additions will join UMC's existing 300mm Fab 12A on the company's multi-structure site.

"The close proximity of the R&D center to the fabs will allow for the seamless integration of advanced process technologies from the R&D phase to manufacturing, such as the company's 45nm process technology that was recently used to fabricate working SRAM chips," Jackson Hu, UMC's chairman and CEO, said in a statement.

Fab 12B is UMC's third 300mm fab, behind Fab 12A and Fab 12i, which is based in Singapore. Construction is expected to be complete by the end of 2007 and will be ready for equipment move-in by Q1 2008.

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