Semiconductor companies collaborating on the development of chip process technologies are being forced to do so out of a position of weakness, according to Texas Instruments’ CEO Rich Templeton.

“Technology development is not a team sport. Firms are collaborating out of weakness, not strength,” said Templeton. He ruled out any collaboration with competitors and said the company instead collaborates with universities.

“Alliances are a patch you use when you can’t afford something. It is a slower, negotiated process. TI in the past did joint development and there was a slower result. … Our focus is on time to market and time to volume,” he said.

The company’s second fab outside Dallas will take on 65nm production and, said Templeton, 45nm. The Renner Road fab is still under construction and is due to be completed in Q1 2006. “There are no plans to build a facility in China,” he said.

Semiconductor suppliers collaborating on process technology include Philips Semiconductors, STMicroelectronics and Freescale Semiconductor at the Crolles Alliance site in France. Other partnerships include Sony with Toshiba and a collaboration between IBM, Chartered Semiconductor and Samsung.

On its own development of 65nm process technology, Templeton claimed its yields were now “very good.” “The key is that the first one to a 100 million units wins. We will bring it up to high volume early,” he said.

TI is keen to keep its products close to hand and Templeton said it would not outsource any high performance analog manufacturing but did so, when the need arose, for advanced CMOS. “There is an advantage to having it all in-house,” he said.

By: DocMemory
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