IBM plans 300-mm fab at East Fishkill site

02/01/1998

IBM plans 300-mm fab at East Fishkill site

IBM will build a new developmental 300-mm wafer fab in East Fishkill, NY, and plans to begin producing DRAMs with 0.18-?m design rules by the end of 1999. The computer giant also plans to upgrade its x-ray lithography development program to handle 300-mm wafers.

Work at the $700 million facility will "quickly shift" to 0.15-?m geometries, said IBM, which expects to develop 1-Gbit DRAM manufacturing processes for use on 300-mm substrates. Later work will address logic devices and ASICs. The new fab will be built in Building 323 of the Hudson Valley Research Park, an empty structure located near the company`s Advanced Semiconductor Technology Center (ASTC), traditional home of leading-edge development work.

The ASTC is also home to IBM`s x-ray lithography research, housing an Oxford Instruments synchrotron x-ray source and exposure tools made by Karl Suss (now Suss Advanced Lithography). Sources indicated that there has been a high-level decision at IBM to use x-ray techniques for trial production of actual devices, including a 1-Gbit DRAM design and a microprocessor, with an eye toward evaluating its cost and performance against advanced optical technologies.

In addition, IBM plans to address development of 300-mm silicon-germanium materials for high-speed communications chips, operating at speeds >100GHz. Copper metallization will be used in the new processes. The new fab will be among the first to be built on US soil; its time frame is slightly behind that of Intel`s development fab, which is being built in Oregon. Texas Instruments is reportedly planning a 300-mm development facility in Dallas, in addition to a manufacturing facility in Italy.

About 400 new jobs will be created at the new facility. IBM is receiving a number of financial incentives from the State of New York, including $13 million in grants for employee training and capital costs for the fab and two office building projects; sales tax abatements worth $8.8 million for capital costs; and property tax abatements valued at $6 million. In addition, the New York State Department of Transportation is providing $3.5 million worth of road improvements in East Fishkill.- P.N.D.