MILAN, Italy — The R2 Technology Center – STMicroelectronics’ latest advanced R&D plant – was formally inaugurated this week. It features what officials say is one of the most aggressive cleanrooms available.

The state-of-the-art facility boasts more than 60,000 square feet of cleanroom space that is above ISO Class 3, or “a specification of air purity ten times more aggressive than the traditional Class 1.” It also includes a 200mm wafer fab for volume production as well as research and development and advanced product design facilities.

R2 is ST’s most advanced center for the development and early production of new generation flash and other non-volatile memories, including both stand-alone and embedded.

“The official opening of our latest 8″ fab and R&D center underlines our commitment to meeting our customers’ ever-increasing need for state-of-the-art non-volatile memories, especially flash memories,” said Pasquale Pistorio, president and CEO of STMicroelectonics. “ST’s aggressive technology roadmap is on target to match the capability of the more narrowly focused market leaders.”

The facility is already producing 2,500 wafers per week. Present production is largely comprised of flash memory (from 4 to 64Mb) built with 0.18 micron technology, including 16 and 32Mb devices for cellular phone applications and 16-bit microcontrollers containing 2Mb of embedded flash memory for use in automotive engine management applications.

The plant is located at the company’s Agrate Brianza site, just outside Milan.