Philips Electronics NV’s Philips Semiconductors and SGS Thomson Microelectronics NV have renewed and extended their technology co-operation agreement for a further three years to continue responding to increasing demands for complex ‘system on a chip’ processes and to speed time to volume production. The two major European semiconductor makers have been collaborating since 1992 on enhanced CMOS Complementary Metal Oxide semiconductor processes, and believe this type of co-operation has greatly benefited the European semiconductor industry. Once the processes have been jointly developed, both companies will market them in different ways and for different products, resuming their role as competitors in the usual way. The original agreement covered the development of 0.5 and 0.35 micron CMOS processes, and the new agreement, which runs for three years from January 1, 1998, is for 0.25 micron, which is almost complete, and 0.18 micron and smaller, processes. Philips Semiconductors chairman and chief executive Arthur van der Poel said when the original agreement was signed, the European semiconductor industry was relatively weak. Now, he says, it is very strong, and Philips and SGS Thomson were two of only three companies in the world’s top 15 semiconductor companies which grew in 1996. SGS Thomson says this agreement is aimed at bringing commercial products to market quickly, with highly integrated circuits for applications such as computer equipment, telecommunications, and consumer electronics. As part of the agreement, Philips will increase its financial contribution and increase the number of its people working directly on the project to around 50. Commenting on recent announcements from the US about new chip technologies such as using copper instead of aluminum (CI No 3,252) and Extreme Ultra Violet (CI No 3,246), to produce faster chips with even smaller geometries, SGS Thomson says it has many research projects around the world, including joint partnerships with other partners, working on the sort of 0.1 micron and below geometries referred to in the US announcements, which no one is pretending will appear commercially for a few years. The company stressed that the Philips agreement was for short to medium term commercial development.
