News Article
Joint effort will review new emerging technologies to bring to market
ATDF and UMC have agreed to extend their existing collaboration to evaluate emerging technology products and bring those that are most promising to market.
ATDF and UMC have agreed to extend their existing collaboration to evaluate emerging technology products and bring those that are most promising to market.Under the agreement, ATDF and UMC will focus on specialty technologies — including nanotech and memory designs — that originate with small companies, university labs, and other organisations. ATDF will evaluate the technologies that match UMC's manufacturability criteria, while UMC will work with select innovators to evaluate the manufacturability and commercialisation of their technologies."Our partnership with UMC gives technology innovators an important new resource for implementing their best ideas," said Dave Anderson, ATDF general manager. "Novel technologies now have a clearer path to a foundry, which is especially important for smaller participants in the industry."Joe Ko, vice president of the Specialty Technology Division at UMC, said, "This partnership underscores UMC's commitment to stay at the forefront of semiconductor R&D technologies. It also enhances UMC's ability to target fabless and startup companies that require a manufacturing partner to commercialise new ideas and intellectual property."Under this program, ATDF will assess feasibility and perform qualification testing for any innovator willing to engage in the program. UMC then will review ATDF's test results to select the potential manufacturing partners."This collaboration draws on ATDF's experience in incubating new technologies for the marketplace," said Dr. Shu Ikeda, ATDF technology director. "We are pleased to apply that experience to our continuing partnership with UMC, which affords us the opportunity to bring new processes and novel technologies from concept to manufacturing."ATDF and UMC began their relationship in 2006 with three projects aimed at developing advanced CMOS devices for logic chips. Now nearing successful completion, these projects include the development of multi-gate field-effect transistors (MuGFETs), dual work function metal gates, and mobility enhancement structures.
