AMSTERDAM -- Royal Philips Electronics N.V. and STMicroelectronics are planning to announce a 300-mm wafer fab joint venture with silicon foundry giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd., according to an unidentified industry source quoted today by the Reuters news agency here.
The news service said an announcement is expected in March, but Philips in the Netherlands refused to comment on the report, said Reuters. Philips is TSMC's largest shareholder, with about 30% of the company.
STMicroelectronics, the Franco-Italian chip maker based in the Geneva area, also declined to comment on the report when contacted by SBN. TSMC officials in Taiwan were not available for a comment early today.
TSMC and Philips Semiconductors have formed a $1.2 billion 200-mm foundry venture in Singapore, called Systems on Silicon Manufacturing Co. (see Sept. 29 story). The SSMC venture opened its 200-mm (8-inch) wafer fab last spring with tool sets and technologies for production of system-on-chip products initially based on 0.25- and 0.18-micron processes (see May 23 story). The SSMC facility is scheduled to move to 0.15-micron and below processes this year.
Meanwhile, STMicroelectronics also has a high-volume wafer-processing site in Singapore with 6- and 8-inch fab lines. ST has been cooperating with Philips in 300-mm development and pilot production at the company's plant site in Crolles, France (see April 13, 2000, story).
Reports of a possible 300-mm (12-inch) fab venture between Philips, ST, and TSMC come several weeks after Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) announced it would join silicon foundry supplier United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) in forming a 300-mm manufacturing company, called AU Pte Ltd., in Singapore. The AMD-UMC joint venture will be located at a complex that currently houses another 300-mm company, called UMCi Pte Ltd., which was formed by UMC and Infineon Technologies AG of Germany (see Dec. 14, 2000, story).
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