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2007
Press Releases
SILTERRA AND IMEC TO CONTINUE JOINT TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
Kulim, Malaysia and Leuven, Belgium, June 14, 2007 – Silterra
Malaysia, a leading foundry in Malaysia and IMEC, Europe’s leading
independent nanoelectronics and nanotechnology research center based
in Belgium, today announced that they have signed an agreement for a
joint development project (JDP) to create a foundry-compatible 90-nm
CMOS process technology with intention to further scale to 65-nm. A
110-nm derivative will also be developed in parallel. This
collaborative project is an extension of the JDP conducted earlier
for the 0.13-micron (130-nm) technology and which is already in
production at Silterra.
The technology will be ready for production in the second half of
2008 or earlier and will, among other things, utilize low-K
inter-metal dielectric and the 193-nm patterning process. The
smaller geometries will allow for smaller die sizes and faster
transistors, bringing a better price-performance profile to
Silterra’s customers. A team of Silterra and IMEC engineers will
fine-tune the base-IMEC process at IMEC’s research facility in
Leuven to meet the specifications defined by Silterra. The process
will have physical design rules and electrical characteristics that
match mainstream technologies, enabling customers to seamlessly
support their multi-foundry sourcing strategy.
“Silterra is committed to the pure foundry business and more
advanced process technology development is essential to support the
success of our customers. Many of our major customers adopted the
multi-foundry strategy and we will continue to grow with them. This
project paves the way towards future technology nodes and a
migration path to 300mm,” said Kah-Yee Eg, CEO of Silterra. “As
proven in our earlier engagement with IMEC, this JDP will enable
Silterra to bring a new process into production quickly.”
“We are very pleased that we will continue the successful
collaboration with Silterra to develop a foundry process that will
benefit such a wide customer base,” stated Prof. Gilbert Declerck,
president and CEO of IMEC. “Our 90-nm platform technology is a
great starting point to build on because it is proven and will help
shorten development cycle times significantly.”
The new process, like Silterra’s own foundry compatible 0.13- and
0.18-micron logic technologies, is targeted for a wide range of
products for consumer, communications and computational
applications. In addition, the technology is also optimized for CPU,
DSP and graphics applications. This jointly developed foundry
process opens the door for Silterra to collaborate with other
foundry players in rapidly bringing advanced node densities to
production.
“We see significant business growth in the next 2-3 years and will
continue to actively invest in process technology,” said Eg. “We
had built up strong in-house capabilities in developing process
technologies for specific applications such as RF, High Voltage and
Low Power in 0.18-micron for the past few years and we are currently
developing these application specific process technologies on
0.13-micron. We will continue to move these technologies down to
90-nm and 65-nm with our customers. Our aim is to offer the best
total solution to our customers – and the availability of
technologies for the right process node is critical to that goal.”
About
Silterra Malaysia Sdn. Bhd.:
Market demand driven, SilTerra Malaysia Sdn Bhd is a semiconductor
wafer foundry offering major foundry compatible CMOS logic,
high-voltage and mixed-signal/RF technologies down to 0.13-micron
feature size. This includes complete, competitive contract
manufacturing for fabless and IDM customers’ designs. SilTerra’s
wafer fab has a design capacity of 40,000 eight-inch wafers per
month.
Environmentally vigilant, SilTerra delivers award winning,
world-class performance to its customers seeking flexible capacity,
competitive advantages and around the clock customer support.
SilTerra is ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 14001 certified. Founded in 1995,
the company’s headquarters and factory are located in Malaysia’s
Kulim High-Tech Park, and SilTerra has sales and marketing offices
in San Jose (California) and Hsinchu (Taiwan). For additional
information on SilTerra or its services, please visit www.silterra.com.
About IMEC:
IMEC is a world-leading independent research center in
nanoelectronics and nanotechnology. Its research focuses on the next
generations of chips and systems, and on the enabling technologies
for ambient intelligence. IMEC’s research bridges the gap between
fundamental research at universities and technology development in
industry. Its unique balance of processing and system know-how,
intellectual property portfolio, state-of-the-art infrastructure and
its strong network of companies, universities and research
institutes worldwide position IMEC as a key partner for shaping
technologies for future systems. IMEC is headquartered in Leuven,
Belgium, has a sister company in the Netherlands, IMEC Nederland,
concentrating on wireless autonomous transducer solutions, and has
representatives in the US, China and Japan. Its staff of more than
1500 people includes more than 500 industrial residents and guest
researchers. In 2006, its revenue (P&L) was EUR 227 million.
Further information on IMEC can be found on www.imec.be
Kindly contact Mr.Tahir (tahir_hamdan@silterra.com) for more information.
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