CHARTERED COLLABORATES WITH UST TO OFFER PROVEN BACK-END TURNKEY WAFER BUMPING CAPABILITIES
MILPITAS, Calif. and TAIWAN - September 18, 2003 - Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing (Nasdaq: CHRT and SGX-ST: Chartered), one of the world's top three dedicated semiconductor foundries, and Unitive Semiconductor Taiwan Corp. (UST) - the Taiwan-based manufacturing facility of Unitive, Inc., a leading provider of wafer-level packaging solutions -today announced the qualification of UST's electroplated wafer bumping technology at Chartered. Wafer bumping is the first stage of the chip packaging process and an advanced interconnect technique for mounting the silicon die onto a chip packaging surface without the use of wires.
UST qualified its electroplating wafer-bumping technology on Chartered's 0.13-micron SRAM technology on 200 millimeter (mm) manufacturing process. The completed test chip package measures 27mm by 27mm in dimension and features a silicon die with 1,500 bumps at 180-micron pad pitch. Both companies are also in discussion to qualify UST's 300mm bumping line, which has a capacity of 4,000 bumping wafers per month, with capabilities for eutectic solder, high-lead solder, and lead-free solder bumping.
"Being the first in the industry to install an electroplating bumping line, UST is ahead in the technology learning curve. This has allowed us to grow our customer base worldwide and establish quality reliability and cost competitiveness in our wafer bumping production capabilities," said Daniel Teng, president of UST. "We are excited with the opportunity to join forces with Chartered to offer proven solutions in advanced wafer bumping techniques, aimed at lowering risks and accelerating customers' time-to-market."
"At Chartered, we are committed to delivering total product solutions to our customers, working with our network of qualified, strategic partners to provide access to proven turnkey design and back-end solutions," said Kay Chai "KC" Ang, senior vice president of fab operations at Chartered. "At the 0.13-micron and below technology nodes, material selection for attaining compatibility between the processed wafer and the chip package surface has become a growing challenge for the semiconductor industry. Our collaboration with UST, the pioneer provider of electroplating wafer bumping technology, and the qualification of UST's wafer bumping capabilities on Chartered's process are important steps toward helping our mutual customers overcome the challenges of back-end packaging integration and achieve overall chip functionality."
In concert with this effort, UST has joined Chartered's NanoAccessÔ Alliance, comprising an extensive ecosystem of industry-leading library, electronic design automation, intellectual property, and outsourced design and manufacturing services companies. The NanoAccess Alliance brings together critical system-on-chip (SoC) technologies and services with Chartered's NanoAccess semiconductor manufacturing processes for 90nm and beyond. Chartered and the NanoAccess Alliance companies promote access to open design solutions that allow foundry customers more control over their leading-edge design and manufacturing options. (See September 18, 2003 press release, "Chartered Launches NanoAccess Alliance to Enable Chip Design on Foundry-Proven 90nm Process Platform")
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.
About UST and Unitive, Inc.
UST and Unitive, Inc. are collectively known as "Unitive" for promoting their products and services worldwide. Unitive is the leading provider of wafer-level packaging solutions that make semiconductors smaller, faster and lighter. With its manufacturing facilities in Hsinchu, Taiwan and Research Triangle Park, NC, Unitive partners with its customers to meet their product and global manufacturing needs through innovative deployment of its technologies, resulting in quicker time-to-market and lower costs. UST's services include multi-level passivation, solder bumping, gold bumping, and I/O redistribution. UST's major investors include Wah Lee Industrial Corp., Unitive Inc. and China Development Industrial Bank, etc. For more information, please visit: www.unitive.com.tw or www.unitive.com.
Chartered Safe Harbor Statement under the provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995
This news release may contain 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 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 difficulties, interruptions or unforeseen delays in the implementation of our collaborative efforts with UST; changes in market outlook and trends; customer demands; rate of semiconductor market recovery; economic conditions in the United States as well as globally; the performance level of and technology mix in our fabrication facilities 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.
NanoAccess is a trademark of Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
