Chartered to ramp Fab 3

02/01/1997

Chartered to ramp Fab 3

Despite the current industry slump, Chartered Semiconductors Ltd. (CDM) of Singapore will start to ramp up its Fab 3 facility in April, and intends to build new fabs at the rate of one every two years. After adding a fab in Singapore, the company plans to establish two facilities across the straits in Malaysia, where it has already purchased land.

Walter Prochaska, Chartered`s VP of sales for Europe, noted that Fab 3 is equipped with a 9300 m2 cleanroom, and will use Class 1 minienvironments for production of devices with linewidths ranging from 0.5-0.18 micron. Cost will be about US$1.2 billion, with maximum output of 40,000, 200-mm wafers/month. Fab 4 is already planned; Fabs 5 and 6 are to be located in Malaysia.

Prochaska is interviewing candidates in Germany and is establishing a European sales force. Prochaska said Chartered plans to increase its turnover to "US$10 billion in five or six years," with 20% of this total coming from Europe.

The foundry manufacturer is a member of Singapore Technologies Holdings Pte. Ltd. and therefore indirectly owned by the Singapore government. - Alfred Vollmer