AMD Inks Substrate Agreement for 65nm/300mm Production

by Anton Shilov
01/17/2005 | 06:52 PM

The Soitec Group, a leading supplier of engineering substrate solutions for chipmakers said Monday it and Advanced Micro Devices had signed an agreement under which AMD will continue to use the Soitek’s UNIBOND wafers for its future production using 200mm and 300mm wafers.

“We are extremely pleased with this follow-on order from our long-time customer, AMD. It reaffirms a mutual commitment to our relationship, as well as AMD’s continuing recognition and confidence in Soitec’s high-quality SOI material for volume production in both 200- and 300mm wafer sizes. This order also further validates our decision to invest in 300mm manufacturing during the last industry downturn, as it has strategically positioned Soitec to deliver the on-demand capacity needed to support our growing customer needs,” said André Auberton-Hervé, president and CEO of the Soitec Group.

Under the terms of the multi-year agreement, projected to total more than $50 million for 2005 alone, Soitec will supply AMD with both 200mm and 300mm UNIBOND SOI substrate solutions, manufactured using Soitec’s proprietary Smart Cut process.

The announcement of the agreement may mean that Advanced Micro Devices is on track with building up its Fab 36 in Dresden, Germany. The fab is expected to become operational in 2006 and produce chips using 65nm process technology and 300mm wafers. This will allow AMD to cost-effectively make its CPUs and this seems to be the company’s primary goal for the new foundry. Even though there is 20% to 30% gap between the costs of manufacturing using 200mm wafers and 300mm wafers as well as shrink of fabrication technology to 65nm process also provides some cost benefits.

The initial capacity of the fab is 13 000 300mm wafers per month, but the building itself allows AMD to expand the foundry to produce up to 20 000 wafers per month.

Soitec, has been supplying AMD with volume quantities of thin-film UNIBOND SOI substrate solutions for the production of AMD’s Athlon 64 and Opteron products.