SMIC Starts Producing under 45nm Process

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. recently announced having started the production of its first 45nm yield lot, completing the work on the development of the manufacturing process. The company inked an agreement with IBM in December 2007 for the licensing of low-power and high-performance bulk CMOS technologies, and the completion of the fabrication has been achieved in less than a year.

The company announced that the first full-flow yield lot it would make consists of 300-mm wafers which managed to meet the test conditions imposed by IBM. “Lead customers are pleased with the progress made by SMIC's 45-nm project team and we appreciate the excellent technical support from IBM's Systems and Technology Group,” said Robert Tsu, SMIC's 45-nm project leader, in a statement.

Robert Tsu also added that “This achievement has marked the first major milestone of the project and paves a way to provide an IBM-licensed technology and SMIC wafer foundry service to our customers”. The company stated in an announcement having already signed agreements to provide 45-nm ICs to lead customers and also revealed that it plans to meet the customers' production schedules for 2009.

The 45-nm bulk CMOS technology licensed from IBM offers a suitable solution for ICs to be used in mobile device applications like handsets integrated with 3G baseband, GPS, and multimedia processors. In addition, the technology also offers support for graphics, network, storage, and general consumer devices, announced SMIC.

According to Chris Chi, senior vice president of marketing and sales, the finalizing of the development of the 45-nm process comes to strengthen SMIC's strategic decision to concentrate on logic technologies. At the same time, the 45nm manufacturing technology becomes a statement for the company's commitment to offer 45nm foundry solutions to both design and system houses.