Print

Mail

wiki links

TSMC close to production on its new lithography sets

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufac-turing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said tests for next-generation lithography machines show the devices are close to being ready for volume manufacturing of chips.

TSMC is using a machine made by ASML Holding NV, Europe's largest producer of machines to make semiconductors, in its tests, spokesman Tzeng Jinn-haw (曾晉皓) said yesterday.

Lithography machines project lines on wafers, the thin silicon slices on which integrated circuits are etched.

The company is seeking ways to get more compact features on chips used in mobile phones and MP3 players. That forces suppliers such as ASML, the world's largest maker of lithography machines, to develop machines that allow smaller features to be projected on chips. In chip production, lithography machines are the most expensive devices.

The "immersion lithography program has produced test wafers well within acceptable parameters for volume manufacturing," TSMC said in a statement.

The company aims to be able to project 45 nanometer features on chips. A nanometer is a millionth of a millimeter.

Tzeng, however, declined to say when the world's largest made-to-order chip supplier will start 45-nanometer production.

Separately, Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶), the nation's biggest memory-chip maker, plans to sell bonds and shares abroad to help pay for new plants.

Powerchip board approved plans to sell as much as US$200 million of bonds convertible to the company's stock and a maximum 300 million new shares overseas, the company said in separate filings to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.

The proposed sales may raise up to US$393 million, based on the stock's closing price yesterday.

Powerchip plans to start building two 12-inch wafer plants in this quarter in central Taiwan, which will start production in the middle of next year, chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) said on Jan. 25.

Capital spending this year will exceed NT$60 billion (US$1.8 billion), compared with NT$40 billion last year, Huang said.
This story has been viewed 1954 times.