Fire Destroys Equipment at UICC fab in Hsinchu, taiwan; Production help up
01/01/1998
Fire destroys equipment at UICC fab in Hsinchu, Taiwan; production held up
United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), Hsinchu, Taiwan, said production at its UICC joint venture has been shifted to its other sites after a fire destroyed the fab`s chipmaking equipment and suspended operations there.
The fire, which began at about 5:50 p.m. on October 3, caused an estimated 12 billion Taiwan dollars (about $421 million) in smoke and water damages after burning uncontrollably inside the sealed fab for almost 36 hours, according to UMC. All semiconductor equipment inside was destroyed. The fire did not cause any injuries, and both the building and destroyed equipment were fully insured, according to officials.
The 200-mm fab, which began pilot operations using 0.35-?m design rules in early 1997, may be shut down for as long as a year, according to one of the joint venture partners, ATI Technologies, Toronto, Ontario. UMC has said it will complete construction of two new 200-mm fabs by 1999 to make up for the capacity loss. In addition, UMC has arranged for supplementary capacity of 15,000 wafers/month through its USC, Fab III, and Nan Ya Technology Corp.
UICC (United Integrated Circuit Corp.) is a joint venture between UMC and six other North American chipmakers: Trident Microsystems, Mountain View, CA; Integrated Silicon Solution (ISSI), Santa Clara, CA; Oak Technology, Sunnyvale, CA; Opti, Milpitas, CA; and ESS and Lattice Semiconductor, Hillsboro, OR. Most have released statements announcing that the fire will not disrupt their business operations.
In a joint statement with partner ISSI, Don Brooks, president of UMC International Operations, said that UMC will put ISSI`s future wafer needs ahead of its own. "Even if we have to reduce our own SRAM or DRAM wafers, we will make sure ISSI receives all of the wafers we had committed to providing them in agreements signed prior to the fire. We will give them the full support they may need from our other fabs." ISSI was scheduled to begin receiving wafers from UICC in 1998.
Officials from Taiwan`s Council of Labor Affairs are now calling for safety upgrades, noting that all of Taiwan`s production lines have experienced fires at least twice a year, according to a report by the Singapore Business Times.
Since the fire, the UMC Group, which said it had not experienced a fire for the past 15 years, has also seen room for improvement. Noting that thick smoke prevented firefighters from reaching the flames inside UICC, the firm announced that it will spend 1 billion Taiwan dollars ($35 million) this fiscal year to assemble a high-tech firefighting brigade within the next six months.
UMC also plans to donate 50 million Taiwan dollars to the Hsinchu county and city fire departments and the Sci-ence-based Industrial Park fire brigade. "UMC believes that preventative measures are the best way to protect against fires, but that it is still necessary to strengthen firefighting technology."
-P.N.D., Christine Lunday, WaferNews