Taiwan’s UMC Group, which has been working on copper interconnect technology since early last year, says it will be ready to offer the 0.18 micron Gold Logic process technology later to its customers later this year. UMC says it’s one of the earliest of the pure-play semiconductor manufacturers to offer copper, and is developing process incorporating the technology for 0.18, 0.25 and 0.13 micron ICs. Its partners include Novellus Systems Inc for thin film deposition technologies, KLA-Tencor Corp for defect reduction systems, and Cabot Corp for copper polishing. UMC’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Co, is also readying copper interconnect technology for launch this year.
