CHARTERED SUCCESSFULLY RAMPS HIGH-YIELD 0.13-MICRON PROCESS INTO PRODUCTION MANUFACTURING
Leading foundry reports benchmark manufacturing metrics based on customer production
SINGAPORE - September 1, 2003 - Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing (Nasdaq: CHRT and SGX-ST:
Chartered), one of the world's top three dedicated semiconductor foundries, today announced that it has successfully
achieved a production ramp for 0.13-micron silicon manufacturing with industry-competitive metrics for process
quality, device yields and cycle times.
Starting at the early conceptual stage, Chartered's technology development and manufacturing teams aligned their
efforts to produce a high-quality 0.13-micron process that supports industry-standard design rules for products
requiring multi-sourcing in foundry today. This approach enabled Chartered to execute a 25 percent increase in
device manufacturing yields within four months.
Based on more than 10,000 wafers shipped to date, Chartered's defect density metric meets the benchmark for
competitive 0.13-micron offerings. Some production devices are already yielding more than 90 percent. Cycle
times currently range from less than one day per mask layer for prototype devices to less than two days per
mask layer for production runs. Chartered is aggressively targeting further improvements of its production
process to deliver even lower defect densities and shorter manufacturing cycle times by the end of the third
quarter this year.
Chartered attributes success at the 0.13-micron node to its execution strategy that was driven from the onset
by customer specifications and manufacturing expectations. Initial applications included broadband communications
semiconductors for Broadcom Corporation, and high-density SRAM products for Alliance Semiconductor Corporation
and Integrated Silicon Solution, Inc.
"Our strategic relationship with Chartered continues to be an important part of our manufacturing strategy," said
Vahid Manian, Broadcom's vice president of manufacturing operations. "We've worked very closely over the last 18
months with Chartered's 0.13-micron technology development and manufacturing teams. The synergy between our
development groups has been remarkable and strengthens our confidence in Chartered's ability to deliver the
leading-edge processes needed by fabless semiconductor companies. This collaboration has already produced new
networking semiconductor products using Chartered's 0.13-micron technologies, and we currently have multiple
devices in production."
Chartered's 0.13-micron process is supported by one of the most extensive design ecosystems in the industry. It is
founded on an open business model with third-party electronic design automation (EDA), digital and analog
intellectual property (IP), and outsourced design services companies to guarantee design portability for products
manufactured by Chartered. Silicon-proven process design kits and the full range of standard cell libraries, I/O
components and embedded memory are all available today for Chartered's 0.13-micron process.
"The experience we gained from running copper interconnect technologies since 2000 gave us an edge, and helped
avoid the process and equipment issues that many in the industry faced. This combined with the contributions of
our early customers and strategic EDA and IP partners has produced a 0.13-micron offering that stands up to even
the most performance-demanding system-on-chip (SOC) applications," said Kay Chai Ang, senior vice president of fab
operations at Chartered. "We're pleased with our 0.13-micron manufacturing metrics and capacity roadmap, and are
using the lessons learned at this node to drive a new foundry standard for leading-edge 90 nanometer processes and
beyond."
Market-Driven 0.13-micron Offering
Development of Chartered's all-copper industry baseline 0.13-micron process has been market driven and in production
since the fourth quarter of 2002. It features a comprehensive offering of nominal, low-voltage/high-performance, and
low-power transistors with multiple threshold voltages and SRAM cell options. This enables complex power and
performance trade-offs for next-generation SoC devices. Qualification of the low-voltage/high-performance transistors
is complete and now ready for production. The core logic process also provides the foundation for Chartered's suite of
plug-in modules for analog, RF CMOS and SRAM technologies.
For more information on Chartered's 0.13-micron offerings, go to:
0.13µm Datasheet
About Chartered
Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, one of the world's top three dedicated semiconductor foundries, is forging a customized approach to outsourced semiconductor manufacturing by building lasting and collaborative partnerships with its customers. The Company provides flexible and cost-effective manufacturing solutions for customers, enabling the convergence of communications, computing and consumer markets. In Singapore, Chartered operates five fabrication facilities and has a sixth fab, which will be developed as a 300mm facility.
A company with both global presence and perspective, Chartered is traded on both the Nasdaq Stock Market (Nasdaq: CHRT) and on the Singapore Exchange (SGX-ST: CHARTERED). Chartered's 3,500 employees are based at 11 locations around the world. Information about Chartered can be found at www.charteredsemi.com.
Chartered Safe Harbour Statement under the provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995
This news release contains forward-looking statements, as defined in the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements, including without limitation, the statements relating to our 0.13-micron process; our efforts to improve the production process to deliver lower defect densities and shorter manufacturing cycle times; and the leveraging on the knowledge learned at 0.13-micron to drive a new foundry standard for leading-edge 90 nanometer processes and beyond are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially. Among the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially are the continued success in our technological advances; changes in customer demands; market outlook and trends; economic conditions in the United States as well as globally and competition. Although we believe the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, we can give no assurance that our expectations will be attained. In addition to the foregoing factors, a description of certain other risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially can be found in the section captioned "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 20-F and our First Quarter 2003 Quarterly Report on Form 6-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which are based on the current view of management on future events. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
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