New UMC chief reaches out to designers

Taipei, Taiwan -- The appointment of a fabless industry veteran, Jackson Hu, as chief executive at United Microelectronics Corp. last week signals the foundry's seriousness about improving customer service, which has been a strong differentiator for its primary rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.

Getting into the trenches with design engineers and truly understanding their needs is a "must" if the foundry is to close the widening sales gap with TSMC, new CEO Hu told EE Times. Saying that UMC is neck and neck with TSMC in terms of technology development, Hu acknowledged that the company's process-centric culture has to change to accommodate the emerging challenges of the deep-submicron world.

Hu is the fourth person to hold the title of CEO at UMC in four years. He is also a relative outsider compared with his predecessors, who all came from UMC's inner circle. Hu joined UMC earlier this year to build up its Design Support Division and head the New Business Development Group, which focuses on attracting smaller companies that probably need more process technology support.

Hu has a strong background in the fabless industry, having founded or worked for several fabless chip or design firms. UMC chairman Robert Tsao is betting that Hu's background will help shift UMC toward a more intimate understanding of the increasingly complex interaction among chip designers, EDA tool providers and process engineers.

Hu said he has already brought new personnel on board to handle the higher level of customer service, including some with system, circuit and analog design backgrounds, as well as people with customer-owned-tooling and EDA experience.

As the industry shifts to 90-nanometer production, Hu said UMC will have a new opportunity to gain market share and make up for its missteps at 130 nm. "For 0.13-micron development, we had a false start in the beginning by cooperating with IBM and using the SiLK dielectric material," Hu said. "That hurt us." At 90 nm, "we are doing extremely well" and obtaining acceptable yield, he said.

Hu said UMC will be able to use its performance at 90 nm to engage new customers in the PC space, which has helped TSMC's bottom line during the downturn. He hinted that UMC will go after some of the big accounts at TSMC once 90 nm rolls into volume production.

Hu declined to comment on revenue expectations for the second half, due to a "quiet period" before UMC's July 30 release of its second-quarter results.