***TSMC and UMC Start Production of 0.13 Micron in 4Q
Taiwan Semiconductor Company (TSMC) and United Microelectronics
Corp. (UMC) have announced the development of 0.13-micron process
technology and plans to push this process technology in mass
production in the fourth quarter of this year. These companies
began competing against each other aggressively after the 0.18-
micron process technology was developed.
TSMC will begin to use 0.15-micron design process technology this
year while UMC will rely on 0.18-micron technology - making a
bold move by skipping the 0.15 micron process and going directly
to 0.13-micron processing. It is expected that, for the near
term, TSMC will focus on 0.15-micron processing and UMC 0.18-
micron.
It has been reported that many IC design houses plan to advance
their design rules from the present 0.25-micron process and 0.18-
micron process technologies to the 0.15-micron process. No matter
if it is 0.25, 0.18, or 0.15-micron design rules, manufacturing
equipment remains the same, with only changes are in process
parameters.
Wave Issue 0105 1/26/01 Article 4-01