Other 300 mm Wafer Factories

Fab 32 is Intel's sixth 300 mm wafer factory and its second factory to produce 45 nm chips. Intel first produced 45 nm wafers in its Oregon development facility, called D1D, in January 2006, the first 45 nm processors one year later, and is now moving into high-volume production with the opening of Fab 32. Two additional 45 nm, 300 mm manufacturing factories are scheduled to open next year in Kiryat Gat, Israel (Fab 28), and Rio Rancho, New Mexico (Fab 11x).

All together, Intel will spend up to eight billion dollars on upgrading or building factories for 45 nm chips. That figure includes the Arizona factory, up to 3.5 billion for the new factory in Kiryat Gat, and 1.5 billion to retool the existing facility in Rio Rancho.

The other 300 mm facilities are located in Orgeon (two), New Mexico, Arizona (Fab 12), and Ireland. According to Intel, 300 mm wafer manufacturing uses fourty percent less energy and water per chip than a 200 mm factory. For these reasons, Intel is a proponent for the transition to 450 mm wafers in five to seven years.

« previous 1 2 3 4 next »

Page viewed 1951 times since Sun 1 Mar 2009, 0:00.