Taiwan semiconductor manufacturer Mosel Vitelic Inc has announced plans for two new 12-inch wafer fabrication plants, one of which it claims will be the world’s first. To be located in the Tainan Industrial Park in the south of the island, the plant will be a $1.5bn joint venture with Siemens AG of Germany and is expected to begin production in 2002, the Commercial Times reported.
The second plant is planned for Canada and will be a $1.5bn to $2bn joint venture with the Canadian government with Mosel Vitelic holding a 55% stake, the paper said. This plant will come online in 2003.
Mosel’s current production lines for DRAM chips are to be refurbished for wafer foundry production, according to the report, which also said that Mosel is considering the acquisition of a wafer plant from National Semiconductor of the US.
Meanwhile another Taiwan company, Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) has bought two Motorola chip-processing facilities, one in Taiwan and the other in South Korea, for a combined total of $367m.
Both plants provide chip assembly and test services for Motorola’s semiconductor operations and will continue to do so for three to five years under the terms of the purchase agreement. ASE, the world’s second largest microchip packaging and testing firm, forecasts the acquisitions will boost group sales by $300m a year.
