14 DAY TRIAL // On November 15, ProMOS Technologies held an inauguration ceremony for its second 300mm Fab (wafer fabrication facility) - labeled fab3 - located in Central Science Park in Taichung. The inauguration officially launched ProMOS into a new era of employing nanometer process technology for DRAM production.
"The newly inaugurated 300mm Fab (Fab 3) is Taiwan's first 300mm DRAM Fab to deploy 90 nanometer technology in mass production of 512Mb DDR1 and DDR2. After achieving impressive yield results in July and August, we have decided to accelerate start-up schedule such that the production level will reach 30,000 wafers per month by Q3, 2006 and that in turn will allow ProMOS to achieve a bit-growth rate of 80% in 2006," Dr. M. L. Chen, Chairman and President of ProMOS, said. He also pointed out that "the impacts from the successful start-up of Fab3 is not just in operations, it will also put ProMOS in a better position to move into more advanced technologies in the future."
According to company sources, in December 2005, the monthly output of wafers at DRAM vendor ProMOS Technologies'12-inch fab in Taichung, Taiwan, reached 9,000 units, 1000 wafers more than the company's 8,000 wafers projection. The output was increased due to an improvement of the yield rate of up to 90-95% at the fab (wafer fabrication facility), said industry sources close to the company.
A part of the DRAM chips produced by the 12-inch fab is reserved for South Korea-based Hynix Semiconductor, a strategic partner of ProMOS. The additional output will allow Hynix to ship more DRAM chips directly from Taiwan to the US. The industry sources noted that in doing this, Hynix will avoid being charged with a punitive high tariff rate by US customs on imports of DRAM chips from South Korea starting this year.
According to the Chinese-language Economic Daily News, ProMOS Technologies has landed OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) orders for niche memory from ATI Technologies and Nvidia. The amount of orders exceeds thousands of wafers.
ProMOS will supply pseudo SRAM (PSRAM) and low-power SDRAM (to be packaged with NAND flash or NOR flash into one chip) from its 8-inch wafer fab to the two graphics chip companies, the paper said. The memory maker declined to comment on any specific orders it has received, the paper added.
Last November, ProMOS's 8-inch wafer fab had a monthly capacity of 20,000 units, with 7,000-8,000 units switched from commodity DRAM to foundry service for niche DRAM, the company said.
With DRAM production migrating from 8-inch to 12-inch wafer fabs, DRAM makers are converting the production at their 8-inch wafer fabs from DRAM to other ICs (Integrated Circuits), such as NAND flash, CMOS image sensors and niche ICs. In a November 10 article, sources said Powerchip Semiconductor Corporation (PSC) and ProMOS plan to provide foundry services for LCD driver IC production at their 8-inch fabs.
