SHANGHAI -- Shanghai Hua Hong NEC Electronics Co. Ltd. (HHNEC) here is moving to upgrade its silicon foundry business, including plans to manufacture the first 256-megabit DRAMs in China later this year.
HHNEC will make 256-Mbit DRAMs on a foundry basis for its key partner and investor--Japan's NEC Corp. "We will manufacturer 256-Mbit DRAMs later this year," said Toshio Ohta, executive vice president of HHNEC of Shanghai. "In August, we will start production," Ohta said in an interview with SBN here.
The disclosure is somewhat surprising. Not long ago, China was considered the backwaters of the worldwide semiconductor industry. Now, the nation is making swift progress in semiconductor technology, thanks in part to a new and aggressive crop of chip makers.
HHNEC appears to be one of the most aggressive of the bunch. Established in 1996, HHNEC is a joint-venture foundry between NEC and state-run Shanghai Hua Hong Group. At present, HHNEC has an 8-inch wafer fab for 0.35- to 0.25-micron processes. It is capable of making 30,000 wafers a month.
Its mission is clear. "We are a foundry company," Ohta said. "Our market is not only to make products for China, but also for Asia, Europe, and the United States."
The company also claims it is making chips for a variety of fabless-chip houses worldwide. "We have more than 30 new design projects within China itself," he said.
In early 1999, the company moved into volume production in its new fab, which was several months ahead of its original schedule. Today, the company's fab capacity stands at about 30,000 wafers a month.
Of that, some 16,000 wafers a month are devoted for DRAMs, which are made on a foundry business for its key investor: NEC. At present, the company is making 64- and 128-Mbit SDRAMs on a foundry basis for NEC.
The remaining 14,000 wafers in the fab are geared for foundry purposes, Ohta said. Its foundry is capable of making EEPROMs, IC-card chips, flash memories, SRAM, and other products, he said.
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