ProMos Technologies Inc (茂德科技), the Taiwanese memory-chip manufacturer, put a stop to over a year of quarterly losses by turning out a profit of NT$557.8 million (US$16 million) for the first quarter which ended March 31. Last year at the same time, the company posted a loss of NT$592 million.
The company also said it plans to launch "five to seven new products," said Albert Lin (
Talks with German chipmaker Infineon Technologies AG on transferring cutting-edge chip manufacturing technology, etching chips at 0.09 microns (90 nanometers) and 0.07 microns (70 nanometers), to its plants in Taiwan are also under way. No deal has been reached yet, according to Lin.
Lin also denied newspaper reports that ProMos and Infineon will cooperate on a state-of-the-art 12-inch semiconductor wafer fabrication plant.
"We are not in discussions with Infineon yet, we are just doing a feasibility study," Lin said.
Infineon owns 48 percent of ProMos, which is a joint venture between the German chipmaker and Mosel Vitelic Inc (
Infineon provides technology support for ProMos in return for use of a portion of the company's production.
ProMos expects to ramp up its production of chips at 0.11 microns by the second quarter next year, and by the third quarter wants to be able to produce 18,000 12-inch wafers per month using 0.11 micron technology.
Currently, wafer starts at the company's new 12-inch plant are at 5,000 wafers, but ProMos expects to ramp up to 9,000 wafers by the fourth quarter of this year.
ProMos is one of few companies in the world ramping production at an advanced technology 12-inch wafer plant.
These plants etch chips on silicon wafers that are nearly a third larger than those producing current mainstream plants, and chipmakers claim they will be able to save over 30 percent more per chip once their 12-inch plants are running at full steam.
The company also said it plans to spend US$300 million this year on new chip equipment.
It will spend US$100 million to upgrade an existing eight-inch wafer plant to the 0.11 process technology and US$200 million to increase production at its 12-inch chip plant.
KEEPING UP: The acquisition of a cleanroom in Taiwan would enable Micron to increase production in a market where demand continues to outpace supply, a Micron official said Micron Technology Inc has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion to expand its production of memory chips. Micron would take control of the P5 site in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and plans to ramp up DRAM production in phases after the transaction closes in the second quarter, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The acquisition includes an existing 12 inch fab cleanroom of 27,871m2 and would further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said. Micron expects the transaction to
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
RSS