Thursday, November 6, 2003
NEC Electronics Corp. has nailed down its first 300-mm wafer line construction plan, which is now due to begin operation next year using a 130-nm manufacturing process while adding a 90-nm process soon after.
NEC Electronics and its subsidiary, NEC Yamagata Ltd., are to build the 300-mm wafer line on the first floor of NEC Yamagata's fab with the total investment of about 60 billion yen (about $540 million).
"NEC Yamagata had originally planned to install additional equipment on the first floor of its fab to expand production capacity using 200-mm wafers. Several factors, however, convinced NEC Yamagata to switch instead to installing production equipment compatible with 300-mm wafers," said Kyoji Yamamoto, executive vice president of NEC Electronics.
"Chief among these was a dramatic improvement in investment efficiency gained from the enhanced performance and quality level of production equipment compatible with 300-mm wafers. Clinching the decision was a technological assessment that a production line using 300-mm wafers would have a yield comparable to that of a 200-mm wafer line," Yamamoto said.
About 80 percent of the line will be configured for single- wafer processing while the remainder will undergo batch processing. "For system-on-chip LSI fabrication, the mixed configuration is planned as the most effective line," an NEC Electronics spokesperson said. The line will adopt a mini-environment system, in which the most critical processes will be done in cleanliness class 1 and other areas will be kept in class 1000 level.
NEC Electronics said it selected NEC Yamagata for construction of the new 300-mm line because the subsidiary has been its major volume production base of 130-nm parts and also owns a reserved floor space for future expansion. NEC Electronics is focusing on low power consumption system-on-chip devices mainly for digital consumer electronics and mobile phones, for which demand is increasing. Constructing the new line in the existing building enables will speed the launch of operations.
NEC Electronics is now running almost at full capacity. Until the 300-mm line starts operation, the company aims to expand the present capacity by 30 percent by improving the production efficiency of the current facilities. It also intends to increase the use of foundries mainly within NEC group and also foundries that are ASPLA compatible.
Consequently, the company intends to increase its dependence on foundries from a little less than 10 percent to between 15 and 20 percent.
By: DocMemory
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