IBM Corp has licensed copper microchip technology to a Taiwanese consortium. The group includes Pacific Electric Wire & Cable, resistor manufacturer EVA airways and a unit of the Fubon financial group. An IBM spokesperson said that the group has bought a logic technology license, intending to manufacture semiconductors using copper interconnects on an 0.18 micron process. There are no details on what type of chips the consortium intends to make but they are likely to be application specific integrated circuits (ASICS) or microcontrollers. The spokesperson explained the deal saying that although IBM currently had a lead in copper technology, other companies were moving into the arena and that IBM saw a business window to license the technology. On Wednesday, Mitsubishi announced that it had developed an interconnect technology using a combination of copper and aluminum. The value of the deal was not disclosed.
