Chip giant Samsung Electronics is to join the Austin-based manufacturing-oriented semiconductor consortium, International Sematech Manufacturing Initiative (ISMI), effective April 1.

Samsung joins other recent members Panasonic and Spansion, which became involved in ISMI in October 2004 and January 2005, respectively.

ISMI is a subsidiary of Sematech formed last year to help chip manufacturers improve factory productivity and reduce cost per wafer, and ultimately cost per die, the consortium said.

“We are especially impressed with ISMI’s focus on equipment productivity, which provides significantly greater leverage for our capital investments,” Byoung Park, manager of the technology planning group for Samsung, said in a statement.

“Samsung’s arrival at ISMI will give us tremendous momentum in changing semiconductor manufacturing for the better,” added John Schmitz, VP and COO of manufacturing technology at Sematech. “ISMI’s member companies now represent about 50 percent of world silicon capacity, which gives us considerable influence in helping guide the industry."

ISMI also believes Samsung’s membership will increase its presence in Asia and provide an important window to Korean manufacturing.

The consortium’s core programs include fab productivity, equipment productivity, metrology, and environment/safety/health, with projects conducted within these program areas, guided in the short term by installed base industry needs, and in the longer term by critical strategic manufacturing requirements defined by consortium members.

The group has focused efforts in e-manufacturing, standards development, statistical methods and fab industry modeling to accelerate the realization of future factory needs of the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors.

By: DocMemory
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