September 7, 2004 – Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing has achieved functional 0.13-micron 300mm wafers from its Fab 7, showing silicon results that exceeded internal targets within five months of the first equipment installation. According to the company, it has also launched engineering 300mm wafers at Fab 7 for its 0.11-micron process, as well for the 90nm platform it is jointly developing with IBM.

For 200mm and 300mm manufacturing, Chartered is reportedly already engaging with customers on its 0.13- and 0.11-micron solutions, as well as on the landmark 90nm cross-foundry platform that will be available at both Chartered’s Singapore-based Fab 7 and IBM’s East Fishkill, NY fab.

“Chartered continues to make progress in readying production and lining up customers for Fab 7, our first 300mm facility,” said Kay Chai “KC” Ang, senior VP of fab operations at Chartered.

Customers are utilizing Chartered’s 0.13-micron solutions from Fab 6, a 200mm facility, to deliver a broad variety of leading-edge and next-generation system-on-chip products, such as high-performance graphics chips, storage and networking products, wireless LAN products, PC peripherals and optical drives.

Also, Chartered is offering its 0.11-micron process as an intermediary node to 0.13 micron from its Fab 6 and Fab 7. Chartered’s 0.11-micron process offerings are achieved with a 10% shrink of Chartered’s 0.13-micron design rule, and thus reduce implementation risks while lowering the cost/die. The 0.11-micron solutions support faster speed and enhanced performance, and are targeted for fast-moving products such as graphic chips, optical drives, and high-speed SRAMs, said the company.

Simultaneously, as part of the joint development and reciprocal manufacturing agreement between Chartered and IBM, a team of IBM technical experts is in Singapore to transfer the jointly developed 90nm technology from IBM’s 300mm facility in East Fishkill, NY.

The teams from Chartered and IBM are also working together to qualify the equipment set at Fab 7, and align Fab 7’s equipment configuration and process flow with those at IBM’s facility to reportedly enable the industry’s first dual-source 90-nm platform.

Following the launch of 90nm engineering wafers, Fab 7 remains on schedule to manufacture 90nm SOI products for IBM in mid-2005, with Chartered reportedly becoming the only dedicated foundry to have advanced SOI capabilities.