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Texas Instruments to set up a 300mm analogue fab
By siliconindia
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Monday, 05 October 2009, 19:09 IST
Richardson: Texas Instruments (TI) is putting pressure on its analogue rivals with its new 300mm (millimeter) fab in Richardson, Texas. The company's long-awaited move to announce the dedicated 300mm analogue fab is aimed to extend its leadership position in the analogue space.
According to an analyst, the company could also put pressure on its rivals with the new fab, especially in the power MOSFET arena, where it competes with Fairchild, International Rectifier, On Semiconductor and others. TI also outlined its roadmap for mainstream analogue processes and tipped a new 130nm (nanometer) technology based on copper interconnects, reports EE Times.
On the fab front, TI's new analogue facility, called RFAB, will be the first analogue chip fab to use 300mm wafers. TI has already moved to equip the fab by buying 
838.60 crore ($172.5 million) worth of chip production equipment from Qimonda AG's fab in Sandston, Virginia. TI plans to move this equipment from Virginia to the Richardson fab. The company expects to begin equipping the facility next month and ship the first chips from the fab by the end of next year. "RFAB enables TI to expand its worldwide analogue capacity and bring us cost scaling," said Kevin Ritchie, Senior Vice President of the Technology and Manufacturing Group at TI.
Initially, RFAB will produce chips based on TI's LBC7 process, its mainstream, workhorse analogue technology. Chips based on the LBC7 process account for 40 percent of TI's analogue output. Over time, the fab will make chips based on TI's future analogue processes, such as the yet-to-be-announced LBC8 and LBC9.
838.60 crore ($172.5 million) worth of chip production equipment from Qimonda AG's fab in Sandston, Virginia. TI plans to move this equipment from Virginia to the Richardson fab. The company expects to begin equipping the facility next month and ship the first chips from the fab by the end of next year. "RFAB enables TI to expand its worldwide analogue capacity and bring us cost scaling," said Kevin Ritchie, Senior Vice President of the Technology and Manufacturing Group at TI.
Initially, RFAB will produce chips based on TI's LBC7 process, its mainstream, workhorse analogue technology. Chips based on the LBC7 process account for 40 percent of TI's analogue output. Over time, the fab will make chips based on TI's future analogue processes, such as the yet-to-be-announced LBC8 and LBC9.
