SINGAPORE — Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing recently announced plans for a new 300 mm facility that will house more than 170,000 square feet of cleanroom space in Singapore.

The facility, known as Fab 7, will be Chartered’s largest wafer fab. Pilot production on the facility is expected to begin in 2002. Originally, the company had planned to use the plant as a 200 mm facility. The more advanced configuration of Fab 7 is expected to cost $3.5 billion.

“Clearly, 300 mm is the manufacturing option of choice for the future, and we are excited to be moving forward with our strategy for capitalizing on the 300 mm market opportunity forecasted to ramp up in 2002,” said John Docherty, senior vice president of manufacturing and operations and technology at Chartered.

“Despite short-term uncertainty around the softening in the end-market demand, we feel it is important to invest prudently now for the long-term needs of our customers, while retaining our flexibility to respond to their capacity requirement for other production technologies,” Docherty continued.

Company officials say the plant will have the capacity to produce more than 30,000 300 mm wafers per month in full production.

Fab 7 is part of Chartered’s plan to double its capacity in the next three years.