Motorola Inc claims it is the first smartcard semiconductor operation to take the plunge and move its wafer fabrication to eight inches from six. In an industry where products get smaller and smaller by the day, Motorola claims it is increasing the diameter of the wafers by two inches to meet increasing capacity demands. Eight inch wafers are said to be easier to upgrade and easier to produce. To date Motorola has spent $1.1bn on the transition process, which has already begun. Customers will be able to start ordering the new eight inch wafers at the end of the month. Motorola has four fabrication plants in East Kilbride and Livingston in Scotland, Toulouse in France and Phoenix Arizona. The Phoenix facility is the only plant that will move to eight inch wafers, and six inch wafers will still account for the majority of the company’s wafer offerings. Motorola is under the impression that the new higher capacity and functionality wafers used in smartcard chips will encourage customers to move to cards with increased features. The wafers are to be used in a host of products mainly in the financial and communication areas, as well as other sectors such as transportation. Motorola’s main competitors in this space are SGS Thomson Microelectronics NV and Siemens AG. SGS Thomson has made no moves to migrate to eight inch wafers, but Siemens is said to be in the process of implementing plans to move to eight inch wafers. Both companies were unavailable for comment as we went to press.
