News Article
IBM Links With Singapore Foundry
IBM and Singapore foundry Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing have made a joint development and manufacturing agreement.
IBM and Singapore foundry Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing have made a joint development and manufacturing agreement. The two companies plan to develop and align on 90nm and 65nm logic processes for foundry chip production on 300mm silicon wafers. Additionally, the two companies may explore an extension to the agreement to include 45nm technology. IBM and Chartered will also work with third-party providers of design tools and open-standard formats.
The agreement also includes a reciprocal manufacturing arrangement between Chartered and IBM. Chartered will be able to offer its customers some capacity at IBMs new 300mm chip manufacturing facility in East Fishkill, New York. IBM expects to use some capacity at Chartereds 300mm Fab 7 in Singapore to help meet additional future capacity requirements. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.
Chia Song Hwee, president and CEO of Chartered, says: "This agreement affords Chartered the flexibility to defer the pilot production of our 300mm Fab 7 until late in Q3 2004, while still meeting our customers needs and gaining 300mm manufacturing experience."
The baseline 90nm technology is targeted for 300mm wafer production in East Fishkill in Q3 2003. To assist product planning on next-generation technology, the companies intend to make details of their 65nm development efforts known to customers in Q4 2003. The development activities will be conducted in the East Fishkill facility. Each company will have the ability to implement the jointly developed processes in its own manufacturing facilities.
Previously IBM had development agreements with Taiwan foundry UMC and Germanys Infineon Technologies concerning 0.18 and 0.13micron technologies. The relationship with UMC has ended, but IBM continues to work with Infineon at the Altis Semiconductor joint venture in France.
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Alcatel explores integrated optics for ESA
The European Space Agency has charged Alcatel with the task of exploring an "integrated optics" solution for the "Ground-based European Nulling Interferometer Experiment" (GENIE).
Interferometric astronomy boosts resolutions by combining light from separated telescopes - the wider the separation, the better the resolution. However, this requires highly accurate optical systems. An "integrated optics" solution would develop the technology used in optical communications to combine the light signals. Meeting these challenges would no doubt result in improved optical communication technology in its turn.
Another company, Astrium, is researching a traditional optics approach for GENIE. ESA is to make a final decision in a years time.
ESA hopes that integrated optics could be extended to the mid-infrared and used in its Darwin project - a flotilla of eight spacecraft being sent out to search for extraterrestrial life. Six of the craft will have telescopes. The seventh will combine the light and the eighth will be the centre for communications with Earth. The mission will seek out Earth-like planets and chemically analyse their atmospheres for life signs. The launch would be some time after 2014.
The agreement also includes a reciprocal manufacturing arrangement between Chartered and IBM. Chartered will be able to offer its customers some capacity at IBMs new 300mm chip manufacturing facility in East Fishkill, New York. IBM expects to use some capacity at Chartereds 300mm Fab 7 in Singapore to help meet additional future capacity requirements. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.
Chia Song Hwee, president and CEO of Chartered, says: "This agreement affords Chartered the flexibility to defer the pilot production of our 300mm Fab 7 until late in Q3 2004, while still meeting our customers needs and gaining 300mm manufacturing experience."
The baseline 90nm technology is targeted for 300mm wafer production in East Fishkill in Q3 2003. To assist product planning on next-generation technology, the companies intend to make details of their 65nm development efforts known to customers in Q4 2003. The development activities will be conducted in the East Fishkill facility. Each company will have the ability to implement the jointly developed processes in its own manufacturing facilities.
Previously IBM had development agreements with Taiwan foundry UMC and Germanys Infineon Technologies concerning 0.18 and 0.13micron technologies. The relationship with UMC has ended, but IBM continues to work with Infineon at the Altis Semiconductor joint venture in France.
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Alcatel explores integrated optics for ESA
The European Space Agency has charged Alcatel with the task of exploring an "integrated optics" solution for the "Ground-based European Nulling Interferometer Experiment" (GENIE).
Interferometric astronomy boosts resolutions by combining light from separated telescopes - the wider the separation, the better the resolution. However, this requires highly accurate optical systems. An "integrated optics" solution would develop the technology used in optical communications to combine the light signals. Meeting these challenges would no doubt result in improved optical communication technology in its turn.
Another company, Astrium, is researching a traditional optics approach for GENIE. ESA is to make a final decision in a years time.
ESA hopes that integrated optics could be extended to the mid-infrared and used in its Darwin project - a flotilla of eight spacecraft being sent out to search for extraterrestrial life. Six of the craft will have telescopes. The seventh will combine the light and the eighth will be the centre for communications with Earth. The mission will seek out Earth-like planets and chemically analyse their atmospheres for life signs. The launch would be some time after 2014.
