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.