UMC to Deliver 20 nm Chips in H2 2013

He expects a "structural shift", according to Digitimes, that will lead to a gradual change in market leadership.

Sun sees UMC well-positioned with new 300 mm production capacities coming online in 2013. The company is investing about $2 billion into its fabs this year, which mainly will be used to grow 28 nm capacity. Sun estimated that about 5 percent of UMC's 2012 revenues will be derived from 28 nm products.

20nm FinFET is scheduled for a 2014 volume production and the company said that it has an agreement with IBM to develop a 20 nm 3D FinFET production technology. Low-volume 20 nm chips will be coming off the production lines in H2 2013, Sun said.

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3

rantoc , July 30, 2012 10:43 PM

blazorthonMaking larger wafers are generally cheaper per chip produced than making smaller wafers if I remember correctly. Round ones are probably much easier to make than square ones.

You are correct, bigger wafers produces more chips per cycle and also a bit less waste in the cutting process (square chips on a circular wafer = unused parts).
3

gilgamex , July 30, 2012 10:37 PM

gilgamexI think it's because the wafer is spun through all sorts of production phases, the circular shape of it allows the aerodynamics of it to be consistent leaving little margin for error.

Ignore this is completely wrong, and honestly a guess, "Silicon wafers are grown by using the Czochralski, in which a 'seed crystal' is rotated in a bath of hot molten silicon. As the seed crystal rotates, silicon atoms stick to crystal with a specific orientation that forms a crystal lattice. Eventually, this crystal becomes significantly large and forms a ingot weighing several tons. Because the crystal was rotating, the edges appear form a circle, not unlike spinning a popsicle stick in a thick syrup." found this on a website
2

anonymous@guest , July 30, 2012 10:59 PM

If you bake a casserole or brownies in a square baking dish, the corners come out overcooked because they are, to put it simply, more exposed to the oven environment than the mid-sides areas and therefore heat up more quickly. That kind of non-uniformity is unacceptable in wafer processing, where temperatures and time-at-temperature needs to be precisely controlled.