UMC Outpaces TSMC in 12-inch Fab Project in China

Equipment suppliers say United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), reportedly the world's No.2 pure silicon foundry, will begin to provide foundry service at its 12-inch silicon-wafer fab in Xiamen, China by 2017, earlier than the 12-inch fab project planned in China by the bigger Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC).

They say UMC's construction team of the 12-inch fab project will move to the project site in May this year to oversee the work, which will proceed round-the-clock so as to keep up with the schedule to set up tooling for early April next year and pilot production for Q3, 2015.

UMC's equipment suppliers point out that although UMC will use the Xiamen factory to make 40nm and 55nm chips initially, the company is ordering equipment to scale up to produce 28nm chips, a process that is hitting rough going at China's No.1 homegrown chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp.

They say UMC's 28nm processes have made major technological breakthrough recently, with its 28nm poly-sion process registering a defect-free ratio of up to 80 percent to land increased orders in the first quarter this year and its 28nm high-K metal gate (HKMG) process receiving increased orders from MediaTek Corp. and Qualcomm International Inc.

UMC, they say, will transplant the 28nm processes to the Xiamen factory to cope with the swarming orders.

Although TSMC is optimistic towards China's demand for chips built on 12-inch silicon wafers, the company's 12-inch fab project has not been approved by the Taiwan government for the company's insistence to wholly own such a factory in China, defying Taiwan governmental requirement to only allow the island's chipmakers to hold a stake in 12-inch wafer fabs across the Taiwan Strait.

UMC is delighted about not only the progress of its Xiamen 12-inch fab project but also robust demand for its 8-inch wafer fab capacity and the high-end technologies that its in-house IC design house has developed for the Internet of Things (IoT) applications.

According to UMC's contract buyers, the foundry has sold out almost all its 8-inch wafer fab capacity throughout 2015 due chiefly to burgeoning demand and discount prices comparable to those offered by TSMC.

UMC's design houses, including Holtek Semiconductor Inc., Novatek Microelectronics Corp., Pixart Imaging Inc., Faraday Technology Corp., and ITE Tech Inc., have released high-performance technologies for IoT applications, including gesture recognition technology, micro controller, digitized monitoring device, USB3.1 type C, and 4K resolution technology for TV.

(KL)