The expansion efforts could give the Shanghai-based foundry startup a grand total of four semiconductor front-end facilities by the end of next year, thereby possibly propelling the company into the upper ranks in the chip-outsourcing business, according to analysts.

SMIC has already moved two 200-mm fabs and a separate copper-interconnect plant into production near its headquarters in Shanghai (see Sept. 26 story ). And early last year, reports surfaced that SMIC would also invest and build fabs in Beijing as well (see Heard on the Beat, April 12, 2001 column ).

As in Shanghai, the company has an aggressive schedule in Beijing, which will soon feature China's first and only 300-mm plant, said Samuel Wang, president of the U.S. chip arm of SMIC, SMIC Americas, based in Fremont, Calif.

"We just broke ground on the 200- and 300-mm fabs," Wang said. "Both fabs will be in operation a year from now," he said during a conference on the China IC market in San Jose on Thursday. The event was sponsored by the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) trade group of San Jose.

In an interview with SBN after the event, Wang described the company's 300-mm fab as a "demo" or pilot line facility, which would be capable of processing 0.13-micron devices. However, the SMIC executive referred all other inquiries to a company spokeswoman in Beijing, who somewhat backpeddled on its 300-mm strategy.

"The planned 300-mm fab in Beijing will be a pilot line," according to a spokeswoman for SMIC in Beijing. "It can be easily expanded to be production facility, when and if we choose to do."

The spokeswoman, however, said the company remains undecided when the 300-mm pilot line plant will move into production. "This fab will come after our 200-mm fab in Beijing, which is scheduled start pilot production at the end of 2003," according to the spokeswoman. "No fixed date is set for the 300-mm plant."

SMIC's 200-mm (8-inch) plant in Beijing is a 0.25- to 0.18-micron fab, capable of making 30,000 wafers a month. Production is expected for the so-called "Fab 4" plant will begin in late-2003 or early-2004.

One of the reasons for the confusion about the company's 300-mm fab timetable could revolve around U.S. export laws, which remain cloudy in terms of shipping cutting-edge tools into China, especially for U.S. chip-equipment makers.

On the other hand, SMIC is gathering the tools it needs, including an advanced 193-nm scanner, to boost efficiency as it enters into 130-nm manufacturing and prepares to begin basic development work for 90-nm chip technology. The tool is being shipped by ASML Holding NV of the Netherlands (see March 12 story ).

A few months ago, SMIC linked up with Texas Instruments Inc. to do back-end manufacturing for copper interconnect layers at the 130-nm node, which have more relaxed design rules that can be handled by older 248-nm scanners.