SMIC won't jump on the 450mm bandwagon

7 May 2008 | 12:47 BST

By Sylvie Barak

AS THE BIG CHIPMAKERS Intel, TSMC and Samsung Electronics prepare themselves for the transition to bigger 450mm wafers by 2012, Chinese Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) says that it will wait it out a bit longer.

SMIC admitted that moving to bigger 450mm wafers would be a good thing for the semiconductor industry as a whole, but that the company just isn’t ready to plan the transition just yet.

The reason? Development of the 450mm technology will be costly and the trial period will be long. SMIC probably thinks it would be a better idea to let Intel, TSMC and Samsung Electronics do all the hard work on the development, and spend lots of money on the research, which will then make it easier for SMIC to jump in at a later stage, saving both money and time.

The silicon surface area of a 450mm wafer is 2.25 times the area of a 300mm wafer, meaning that semiconductors could be produced more cheaply, ultimately lowering the production cost per chip.

The larger wafers would also require less energy and water, and produce less air pollution and toxic gas emissions, as the fewer wafers there are to handle, the less waste is produced. The new fabs, however, could cost three times as much as the current ones to build.

SMIC said that at the moment it prefers to channel its efforts into upping the capacity of its 12 inch fabs, and increasing production of non memory products, which the company believes will do wonders for its operating efficiency. SMIC also indicated that it would no longer be producing DRAM chips, but that it would now boost production of logic ICs. µ

L’Inq
Digitimes

See Also
450mm wafer coming in 2012

Intel 22nm plans use 450mm wafers

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