Intel and UMC cooperate to lay out the FinFET wafer foundry market and use existing resources to reduce investment costs

 

【Lansheng Technology News】Intel and United Microelectronics (UMC) officially announced their cooperation in developing 12nm on January 25, 2024. This cooperation uses UMC to provide diversified technical services and Intel to provide ready-made factory facilities, and both parties will operate together. Not only does it help Intel transition from IDM to wafer foundry business models, increase process scheduling flexibility and gain foundry operating experience, but UMC can also flexibly utilize FinFET production capacity without having to bear huge capital expenditures, starting from mature processes. They find another way to make a living in the competitive situation. At the same time, by jointly operating Intel's US factory, they can indirectly expand the international distribution of factories and diversify the risks of the international situation. This should be a win-win situation.

In order to reduce additional investment costs in factory facilities, directly connect existing equipment and machines, and effectively control the overall development schedule, the two companies chose Chandler, which uses Intel's existing similar process technology, to cooperate on the 12nm FinFET process. Arizona Fab22/32 is the initial cooperation factory. After the conversion, the production capacity will maintain the original scale and will be jointly owned by both parties. In this case, the average investment amount can save more than 80% compared to purchasing a new machine. It only includes the factory secondary piping fee for moving the equipment machine and its related small ancillary equipment.

Before the cooperation was announced, Intel had long been focusing on manufacturing core chips such as CPUs and GPUs. It also possessed advanced process technology and wanted to actively enter the foundry industry. In 2021 and 2022, Intel announced IDM2.0 and the acquisition of Tower Semiconductor ( Tower) plan, but execution was hampered. UMC has been investing heavily in its main processes of 28nm and 22nm for a long time, and has special technical advantages such as High Voltage. However, the trend of other manufacturers using a large amount of resources to develop mature processes has forced UMC to rethink the necessity of entering the FinFET generation and expand production. However, the plan is hesitant due to the high investment cost of FinFET architecture.

After the cooperation is announced, UMC will not only provide collaborative development of some IP for 12nm technology, but will also assist Intel in negotiating foundry business. UMC can not only utilize existing FinFET production capacity without amortizing huge investment costs, but also stand out in the fierce competition with mature processes. Intel, on the other hand, provides existing factory facilities. In addition to gaining experience in the foundry market, it can expand process flexibility and diversity, and it can also concentrate resources on the development of more advanced processes such as 3nm and 2nm.

If the follow-up cooperation goes smoothly, Intel may consider jointly managing one or two 1Xnm-level FinFET factories with UMC in the future; it is speculated that Ireland Fab24 and Oregon D1B/D1C with similar processes are possible candidate factories. However, UMC, as the main technology IP provider, has not officially entered mass production of 14nm since 2017. 12nm is still in the research and development stage and is expected to enter mass production in the second half of 2026; therefore, the mass production schedule of the cooperation between the two parties is temporarily Scheduled for 2027, the technical stability of FinFET architecture remains to be seen. Overall, TrendForce believes that with the cooperation of UMC, which has been involved in mature manufacturing processes for many years, and Intel, which has advanced technology, both parties will not only obtain the resources that each other needs in the 10nm-level manufacturing process, but also whether there will be opportunities in their respective fields of expertise in the future. Deeper cooperation deserves attention.

Lansheng Technology Limited, which is a spot stock distributor of many well-known brands, we have price advantage of the first-hand spot channel, and have technical supports.

Our main brands: STMicroelectronics, Toshiba, Microchip, Vishay, Marvell, ON Semiconductor, AOS, DIODES, Murata, Samsung, Hyundai/Hynix, Xilinx, Micron, Infinone, Texas Instruments, ADI, Maxim Integrated, NXP, etc

To learn more about our products, services, and capabilities, please visit our website at http://www.lanshengic.com