NEC May Delay 300 mm Wafer Use

Staff -- Semiconductor International, 4/1/1998

According to Tokyo's NEC Corp., the company is considering a year's delay in its plan to produce chips using 300 mm wafers. Original plans called for NEC to establish 300 mm wafer lines at its Sagamihara, Kanagawa, prefecture plant by the end of FY98, but this will be suspended at least until after 1999. It was expected that the Kunamotro prefecture plant would start producing 300 mm wafers in 1999, but this also has been postponed. NEC blames a sluggish market and the high price of the equipment that would be required. Ramping up for fabrication would cost more than $1.2 billion, and the equipment more than twice as much.