Caution Ahead on 450mm At one point, it seemed everything was lining up very well for 450mm: a consortium of the proponents (G450C), a post-450mm delivery of EUV (along with significant investment in ASML), and some agreed-upon industry deadlines, and many 450mm-specific industry grou

Consortia Galore Last week, Mark LaPedus at SemiMD put together a great article about the latest surge in 450mm consortia and consortium-like 450mm projects. It appears that 450mm R&D is poised to really take off with the formation of these new groups. After reading the piece, I w

300 Prime   Face it, 300mm Prime didn’t really happen. The industry, as a whole, had a chance to optimize 300mm fabs for cycle time and productivity, and maximize the investment. There was particular benefit available for high-product-mix manufacturers. Instead, 300mm Prime became Nex

I was wrong on 450mm. But first, a caveat. When speaking out on the subject in 2007, I wasn’t necessarily wrong. Nor in 2008, 2009, or even in 2010, though there were some signs my position was weakening. 2011? I was busy marketing a book. (Shameless plug… buy “Dormant Curse”.) By 201

450mm Schedule By all appearances, 450mm, an industry disruption, is now on track. In recent announcements, Intel effectively decoupled EUVL from 10nm, which allows the 2018, 450mm target date to stand intact regardless of any EUV slip. If EUV is delayed to 7nm, there’s still a 450mm

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company has made public what many in the industry have known for some time: Don’t expect 450mm until 2018. In an article in the Taiwan Times, TSMC’s technology roadmap is discussed, which now includes 10nm transistors on 450mm in 2018 (hi

Each year at SEMICON West, ISMI provides a closed-door progress report on their 450mm program.

In a talk at the International Electronics Forum being held in Dresden this week, Dr. Jack Sun, CTO of TSMC had stated that he expected 450mm had been delayed until 2015 from the original target date of 2012 due to the credit crunch.  “The device manufacturers and governments al