Negotiation continue on details of the agreement and the two companies plan to reach a final agreement by the end of June.
The new joint venture will use a portion of IBM Japan’s existing chip manufacturing process at Yasu, Japan. It will add state-of-the-art 300-mm silicon wafer capacity at linewidths of 0.13 microns. The new company also plans to add 0.10 micron linewidth process technology to bring the facility to the level of IBM’s most advanced manufacturing facilities.
The joint venture will use IBM technology breakthroughs such as copper interconnects and low-k dielectric insulation to produce the logic chips, all of which will be dedicated to customers for the two companies.
Establishment of the new company will allow both IBM and Seiko Epson to continue building on their competitive advantages, combining the expertise of both companies in semiconductor innovation.
