First Malaysian Wafer Foundry Planned
-- Semiconductor International, 8/1/1999
1st Silicon Sdn. Bhd. (Malaysia) plans to build a 200mm
wafer foundry with 0.25 mm CMOS process technology under a technology transfer
agreement with Sharp, Japan.
The fab will be located on a 97-acre site in the Sama Jaya Free Industrial Zone of Kuching, Malaysia, which has space for three contemporary wafer fabs.
Production is planned to start in the fourth quarter of 2000. At full capacity, the fab is to have a monthly capacity of 30,000 wafers.
Meissner + Wurst Zander (Germany), a subsidiary of Jenoptik AG, will be general contractor, designing and building the facility and infrastructure and managing the hook-up operations. Jenoptik is a financial partner in the project, with a multimillion-dollar equity investment in 1st Silicon.
Construction of the fab will be funded through a syndicate loan agreement in excess of $200M from a consortium of European banks.
The technology transfer agreement with Sharp will provide 1st Silicon with
several 0.25 mm processes on 200mm wafers, to be followed by continued
development of several 0.18 mm processes. The agreement also calls for 1st
Silicon to supply wafers to Sharp.
