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Analysis: 300mm's long strange trip
By Peter Clarke and Brian Fuller, EE Times
December 13, 2002
LONDON — Nearly nine years ago at Semicon Europa, the semiconductor industry started to sketch out the transition to 300mm manufacturing. Friday, one company put the finishing touches on it.
With Infineon's announcement that its 300mm manufacturing is less expensive than 200mm, the industry can be expected to begin a rapid transition to the larger wafer size—a transition that has suffered fits and starts, positioning and intrigue for the better part of three years.
“That we broke even on 300mm will change everyone's opinion on 300mm very radically,” said Andreas von Zitzewitz, chief operating officer of Infineon.
This "cost crossover" milestone was reached at the Dresden, Germany, fabrication plant, the company said, and would allow the company to benefit from cost savings of up to 30 percent as the plant ramps to full capacity by summer 2003. Operating at full capacity, the 300-mm wafer plant in Dresden will achieve 28,000 wafer starts per month. Infineon currently produces around 19,000 wafers per month in 300-mm technology in Dresden.
Infineon said it will convert all lines to 300mm within 3-5 years.
"Converting DRAM production to 300-mm we believe we have a four-to five-year lead over the competition which solidifies Infineon's position in the semiconductor industry," von Zitzewitz said.
Von Zitzewitz said the crossover came just one year after the company started manufacturing 300mm, although he acknowledged that the company has been working on the transition for five years. The industry cost-crossover from 6-inch wafers to 8-inch wafers took some two years, according to Infineon.
Infineon didn't hesitate to take the opportunity to fire shots across Micron Technology Inc.'s bow on the 300mm issue. Micron is installing a pilot 300mm line.
"They didn't believe in the short-term opportunity for 300mm. They perhaps thought it was more risky. Today, the market doesn't allow for them to invest in it," he said.
He also showed a slide indicating losses before taxes in the previous two quarters have been 10 percentage points lower at Infineon than at Micron, assuming inventory effects.
Still, it's not clear how Infineon is accounting for the cost of raw wafers at 300-mm diameter is being taken into account. Micron officials have claimed 300-mm wafers are eight to ten times more expensive than 200-mm wafers more than offsetting any advantages in die per wafer.
Analyst Jim Feldhan of Semico Research (Scottsdale, Ariz.) also played down Infineon's claimed lead in the 300mm race. “Samsung is there and Micron will be there,” he said.
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