The KTI Semiconductor Ltd joint venture set up in Japan in 1990 by Kobe Steel Ltd, 75% and Texas Instruments Inc, 25%, will invest $500m to double its production capacity for silicon wafers by 1997. The new capacity will lift output to 25,000 eight-inch wafers a month, from about 10,000 a month at present. The investment will also give KTI the capacity to make wafers using 0.35-micron design rules. The new facilities will go next to the existing ones in the western Japan city of Nishiwaki, in Hyogo Prefecture. The new building with its clean room will be completed by 1996.
