Rambus (RMBS)

[Threejack]

Jury Tampering


From the EETimes.

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Infineon readies new 300-mm fab in Virginia
By George Leopold
EE Times
February 16, 2005 (9:51 PM EST)

RICHMOND, Va. — Infineon Technologies AG began installing equipment in its new 300-mm memory fab near here in mid-December and the chip maker expects to ramp up the factory for limited DRAM production sometime later this year, company managers said during a tour of the new 120,000-square-foot facility on Wednesday (Feb. 16).

The roughly $1 billion expansion of the Richmond fab is intended to boost Infineon's capacity of 512-megabit density SDRAMs. The output is expected to meet growing demand from its core automotive, mobile communications and computer customers, according to Robert LeFort, president of Infineon Technologies North America Corp. (San Jose, Calif.).

LeFort said the DRAM fab expansion is justified based on the company's projections for greater demand for memory, especially for consumer electronics products and mobile phones. Overall, LeFort said Infineon expects "reasonable growth" in the chip industry during 2005.

Henry Becker, managing director of the Richmond fab, wouldn't specify when production would begin in the 300-mm facility, but he did say Infineon will "prove out" the equipment as soon as possible so it can achieve working silicon and then move to 90-nm production.

Infineon hopes to begin 90-nm production at its 300-mm fab in Dresden, Germany, by mid-year, company executives said. LeFort said the chip maker expects to move to 70-nm DRAM production at its Dresden fab sometime in 2006.

The Richmond fab will focus solely on memory production, Becker said, including 256-Mbit synchronous DRAMs, 256-Mbit DDR, DDR2 and "specialty DRAM products" such as mobile RAM, Becker said.

The fab will also leverage Infineon's DRAM process technology developed at an adjoining 200-mm fab that has been operating for several years. The facility, which is partly funded by the Commonwealth of Virginia, is located just east of Richmond amidst a string of Civil War battlefields.

The new 300-mm fab will produce about 25,000 wafer starts a month at full capacity. Workers were racing this week to unload and install new equipment in the new fab's huge "ballroom." They appeared to have completed about one-quarter to one-third of the installation.

On the equipment front, ASML Holding NV of the Netherlands and Nikon Corp. of Japan are reportedly the winners of a big lithography-tool order within Infineon's fab in Virginia, according to sources in the industry (see Sept. 10, 2004 story).

ASML will reportedly provide the 193-nm scanners in the fab, while Nikon grabbed the 248-nm business, sources said. Until now, the German chip maker primarily used scanners from two suppliers: ASML and Japan's Canon Inc.

Back in April of 2004, Infineon said that it would implement a $1 billion expansion project for its Virginia fab. After a three-year or longer delay, Infineon Technologies Richmond LP is to be kitted out with equipment to start DRAM production on 300-mm wafers beginning in early 2005, the company said (see April 23, 2004 story).

http://www.eetimes.com/semi/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=60401525

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Funny how these Infineon Richmond Fab expansions are timed right before their Richmond Rambus trials.

Rambus has no chance. Babes in the woods being schooled by a foreign corporation in how to exercise power and influence in the USA. Pathetic.

Just my opinion.

Threejack