TSMC, Spansion Team for 110nm MirrorBit Manufacturing

Online staff -- Electronic News, 8/11/2005

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and Spansion LLC, AMD’s Flash memory venture with Fujitsu Ltd., reported today a manufacturing agreement meant to augment Spansion’s internal production of its 110nm MirrorBit technology.

Per the agreement, TSMC will supply foundry manufacturing capabilities for Spansion’s family of GL, PL and WS wireless products and GL embedded products based on 110nm MirrorBit technology.

Also, the companies said TSMC will phase Spansion’s 110nm process technologies into its production lines exclusively for use in Spansion’s products. Initially, Spansion’s 110nm MirrorBit technology will be fabricated on 200mm wafers, with the target production ramp date at TSMC in Q2 2006.

“Our partnership with TSMC will help augment our internal production capability and allow us to more quickly migrate to next-generation technologies,” said Bertrand Cambou, president and CEO of Spansion, in a statement.

The companies believe they can create a powerful team to compete in the Flash memory market, one of the fastest growing segments of the semiconductor industry.

“Our collaboration will also give us additional flexibility in our business model as we continue to meet customer demand for our MirrorBit technology,” Cambou added.

Spansion's MirrorBit technology stores two bits of data in a single memory cell, doubling the density of each memory cell and requires fewer manufacturing steps, resulting in higher yields and lower costs, the company said. The technology also eliminates at least 10 percent of the total manufacturing steps and 40 percent of the most critical manufacturing steps, as compared to floating gate MLC NOR technology.