SMIC is participating in the exhibition and conferences of SEMICON China 2006 from March 21 through 23 at the Shanghai New International Expo Center (SNIEC). The event is one of the largest trade shows targeting China's semiconductor industry, where leading equipment vendors, material suppliers, manufacturing, and other service chains, from around the globe come together to share their latest technology offerings.

As one of the leading foundries in China and the world, SMIC is participating in this event for a third consecutive year, showcasing its latest technologies and product offerings.  SMIC has been also invited to steer and to present in many of the technical sessions in the semiconductor technology symposium/forum scheduled, on topics ranging from advanced processing, manufacturing science, reliability, photolithography, and environmental stewardship and safety in China, plus others, aimed at contributing to the advancement and exchange of information on the latest technology developments in China and the international community.

Visitors can find SMIC at booth 1301 in Hall W1 of the Shanghai New International Expo Center (SNIEC) for the duration of SEMICON China 2006 from March 21-23.

In 2000, as the semiconductor industry was in midst of an industry-wide downturn, SMIC began planning and constructing its fabs so they would be ready for the coming industry upturn.  While SMIC was constructing its 200mm fabs in Shanghai, some semiconductor companies were building 300mm fabs outside of China.  Two years later, when piling began for SMIC's 300mm wafer fabrication facility in Beijing, SMIC benefited from experienced contractors who helped to construct and equip its 300mm wafer fabrication facility, allowing SMIC to become the first mover of 300mm manufacturing in China.

Fab Design
SMIC's 300mm wafer fabrication facility in Beijing utilizes a tri-fab architecture to separate front-end and aluminum metallization processing from copper back-end processing.  This distinctive design, also used in the prior construction of SMIC 200mm fabs in Shanghai, enhances the wafer manufacturing process by physically segregating the copper back-end manufacturing locale to minimize risks of cross contamination.

In addition, having a tri-fab design incorporates a built-in opportunity for a new foundry business model based on solely providing copper back-end manufacturing for advanced logic processes.  Together with Fab 7 in Tianjin, SMIC's four fabs in the Greater Beijing area form a fab cluster that enables cost-effective and efficient sharing of resources such as product and testing facilities, customer engineering support, and marketing and sales support.

Fab Operations
With a standard 300mm 25-wafer lot and pod weighing approximately 18 pounds, fab automation was a key issue taken into consideration from the initial planning and design stages of the construction project.  SMIC Beijing's 300mm wafer fabrication facility employs a design layout with advanced fab automation systems.  Its state-of-the-art Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) system was developed based on SMIC's 200mm Manufacturing Execution System (MES), with additional 300mm functions to include Front Opening Unified Pod (FOUP) management, sorter automation, wafer level tracking, and multi lot/recipe in one FOUP.  The 300mm CIM System helps the fab to maintain high efficiency while keeping costs low.

Challenges and Solutions
Constructing and operating a 300mm wafer fabrication facility in Beijing presents some unique challenges to overcome.  As perennial sand storms sweep across the Mongolian deserts to Beijing at least twice a year, three levels of protection - sand trap louvers, auto roll filters, and air filters and washers - effectively work to keep out sand particles.  The implementation of these measures helps to maintain Class 100 and Class 1000 air cleanliness standards for the photo litho area and the remaining fab areas respectively.

In addition, Beijing's limited water capacity and high water and waste water treatment costs also prompted additions to SMIC's building design in order to maximize water conservation.  Rainwater collection tanks with a total capacity of 2,600m3 collect and store rainwater for daily operational usage.  Moreover, an intricate network of water collection and reclamation systems helps to reclaim cleanroom and industrial water for repeated usage.  By the end of 2006, the reclaim ratio of Ultra Pure Water (UPW) to be used in cleanrooms for wafer manufacturing is expected to reach 80%.

Looking Ahead
As the IC industry in China closes the technology gap between itself and the rest of the world, it will require the advanced manufacturing capabilities capable of providing additional capacity at a low cost.   SMIC aims to continue to provide total IC solutions in China and to the rest of the world by increasing its 300mm capacity to offer further advanced manufacturing and technologies.  In doing so, China's IC industry will move ever closer to the forefront of world-class IC technology and manufacturing.

Infineon Technologies AG, one of the world's leading semiconductor solutions provider, signed an agreement with SMIC earlier this year further extending their on-going cooperation on the production of standard memory chips (DRAM) into 90 nanometer (nm).  The collaboration between Infineon dates back to December of 2002, and this new agreement again highlights both companies' commitment in the advancement of DRAM products.

Under the new agreement, Infineon will transfer its leading 90nm DRAM trench technology and 300-mm production know-how to SMIC, with the flexibility of further transferring its 70nm technology in the future.  For its part, SMIC will manufacture products in this technology exclusively for Infineon.  Upon the final qualification of products, SMIC will begin to migrate the 300mm production capacity currently dedicated to Infineon's 110nm DRAM products to 90nm.

SMIC's flagships Fab 1 and Fab 2 in Shanghai have recently been certified as Japan Sony's "Green Partners", further highlighting its commitments to environmental protection throughout its development.  Sony's "Green Partner" program, launched globally in 2002, requires suppliers to comply with policies that prevent and minimize hazardous environmental impact in product development and manufacturing, so each product part, device, and raw material is checked and verified to ensure they do not pollute the environment.

Winners of "2005 China's Top CIO Award", organized by IDC, a leading provider of technology industry data-driven research and analysis based in the U.S. and CEO & CIO China publication, were announced in Beijing on January 14, 2006.  Dr. Naiyung Chen, Senior Vice President at SMIC, was among the honorees and named as one of "China's Top CIO" in 2005".

"China's Top CIO Award" is aimed at fostering and encouraging the development of information technology in China, recognizing individual information officers in enterprises for their efforts towards the advancement of information technology in their companies and the IT industry at large.  SMIC, as one of the leading foundries in the world and China, was recognized for its world-class "Computer Integrated Manufacturing" (CIM) system, and Dr. Naiyung Chen, was honored for his contributions towards the building and establishment of the information infrastructure at SMIC.