Intel, Samsung & TSMC for 450mm

Intel and Samsung, which are respectively numbers 1 & 2 in the semi-conductor industry, as well as TSMC, much in demand from its clients such as ATI, Nvidia, Broadcom, Conexant, Marvell and even VIA, have decided to work conjointly in the gradual transition to the fabrication of chips made from 450mm wafers. They cite the need for industry wide collaboration and have set a target date of 2012.

It’s interesting to note that R&D costs have become so high that even Intel, which generally prefers to fend for itself in this domain, is now more or less obliged to join others in order to maintain a roughly 10 year cycle. You may recall that engraving on 300mm wafers was put into place in 2001-2002 and production of wafers measuring 200mm started in 1991. The main advantage of going with larger sizes is to lower per unit production costs.

As environmental concerns should now be a bigger consideration, the press release specifies that through more efficient use of energy, water and other resources, bigger wafers can help diminish overall use of resources per chip. For example, the conversion from 200mm wafers to 300mm wafers helped reduce aggregate emissions per chip of air pollution, global warming gasses and water, and further reduction is expected with a transition to 450mm wafers.

In theory, this is something good for consumers, because it should enable reducing per unit production costs and to justify R&D expenditure of the three companies. Moreover, it can generally mean slightly more aggressive prices or for the same price the arrival of better products. Otherwise, we can hope that other large manufacturers also manage to quickly come to agreement on 450mm as competition is often the first factor in reducing prices.