ST’s Crolles2 fab to get $500 million for volume ramp

Peter Clarke
EE Times Europe
05/28/2008 1:57 PM

LONDON — STMicroelectronics NV has earmarked $500 million in capital expenditure to take its Crolles2 wafer fab manufacturing capacity up to between 4,500 and 5,000 wafers per week. « We want to fulfill the capacity of the building, » said Carlo Bozotti, president and CEO of ST.

This will mark the transformation of Crolles2 from an R&D and pilot production center to a volume fab, which will also perform customization of 32-nm and 22-nm CMOS processes developed within the IBM Common Platform consortium.

The money is to be spent over the next few years depending on demand and the degree to which ST outsources production of high-end production to foundry partners, Carlo Bozotti, president and CEO of ST told EE Times. He added that Crolles would be ST’s premier site for advance digital CMOS and was able to produce 32-nm and 22-nm circuits. The company’s 45-nm process is due to qualify for production at the end of June.

At present, ST has a manufacturing capacity at Crolles2 of about 2,700 wafers per week made using a 65-nm CMOS process. ST has spent approximately $500 million buying up the chipmaking equipment that previously belonged to its erstwhile partners at Crolles, Freescale Semiconductor Inc. and NXP BV. That process is expected to complete in July 2008.

Bozotti said the process extensions that would be developed at Crolles2 would also be important : « Ultra low-power CMOS is an important process for mobile and embedded flash. We have an embedded flash program with Freescale on 90-nm, we are moving that to 65-nm. » Bozotti said ST was « working to expand the network, » of companies that would work on such process extensions at Crolles. « We are not looking for manufacturing partners, We are looking for technology R&D partners, » said Bozotti.