Chip makers hammer out road to 450-mm wafers

Members of the International Sematech Manufacturing Initiative (ISMI) will take a first crack at defining 300mm-prime, a set of about 20 productivity enhancements aimed at helping today’s 300-mm fabs step gradually to next-generation wafer sizes.

"The move from 200- to 300-mm wafers was a revolutionary transformation, creating the first fully automated fabs,” said Scott Kramer, director of ISMI in an interview with EE Times. "It required a very high R&D investment to make that happen.

"The objective for the next generation is to make it more evolutionary,” Kramer added. “Three hundred millimeter was quite an abrupt change with many new standards. If we repeat that, we will have failed,” he added.

A majority of ISMI members voted in October to create the 300-mm-prime road map. One source involved in the discussions said Intel and Samsung were the main proponents of a quick move to 450-mm wafers, while most other members opted for taking the interim step.

"The majority of our companies want 300-mm-prime, but they each have their own opinions on the timing," said Kramer.

ISMI members also include Advanced Micro Devices, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Infineon, Matsushita, Philips, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Texas Instruments.