August 9, 2003 – Suzhou He Jiang, a mainland Chinese chipmaker, is planning for volume production in September 2003 for its 8-in. wafers made with a 0.18-micron process, according to the Taiwan Economic News.
The company, headed up by former UMC execs, projects a monthly capacity of 10,000 wafers/month, up from current output of 5,000 wafers/month. This schedule puts it ahead of two other mainland operations of Shanghai Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC), mainland China’s other dedicated chip supplier, produces 35,000 wafers/month, and will add production of DRAM chips for Infineon later this year.