In December 2001, Singapore’s Chartered Semiconductor agreed to provide China’s SMIC with its 0.18-micron logic process technology and patent-license rights. In exchange, Chartered was to receive an equity stake in SMIC and access to SMIC’s manufacturing capacity. The companies did not disclose the stake’s size, financial terms, or the amount and duration of capacity access.
What each company was to receive
SMIC’s announcement on 21 December 2001 described an alliance whose detailed agreements were still to be executed. It set out an industrial exchange, not a disclosed cash purchase price:
| Company | What the alliance provided |
|---|---|
| SMIC | Chartered’s 0.18-micron baseline logic process technology and patent-license rights. |
| Chartered | An equity stake in SMIC and access to SMIC manufacturing capacity. The percentage, volume, duration, and valuation were not stated in the announcement. |
Consequently, there is no substantiated percentage to give for Chartered’s stake. The announcement disclosed neither that figure nor the deal’s financial terms.
Why the alliance mattered to China’s chip industry
SMIC was a Shanghai-based startup building open foundry capacity: manufacturing chips designed by other companies. Its alliance with an established Singapore foundry connected that emerging capacity to a proven process and to an international industry partner. For SMIC, the technology was intended to reduce the time needed to develop manufacturing capability and make the company more credible to international chip designers.
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Chartered, meanwhile, gained a way to deepen its presence in China’s growing semiconductor market. Access to SMIC capacity could also let Chartered offer customers a local manufacturing route. Chartered’s president and CEO Barry Waite called the non-exclusive alliance part of the company’s “long-term China strategy”; SMIC president and CEO Richard Chang said working with a proven technology leader would help SMIC move more quickly along the learning curve.
The agreement was described as non-exclusive. It was one part of China’s development of domestic foundry capacity, not evidence that SMIC had already achieved production at the transferred node or that all contemplated agreements had been completed.
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- Beautiful microchip pattern structure made by the advanced copper technology
- 90~130nm minimum microchip feature Copper Characterization with TEOS or Black Diamond Low-k ILD on the single crystal silicon wafer
- The original value of un-polished wafer is above $500
- No guarantee for research and other applications
What 0.18-micron meant for SMIC’s 8-inch fab
SMIC had entered pilot production at a new 8-inch wafer fab with capability at 0.25 micron and below. The alliance pointed toward a move to a 0.18-micron logic process: a smaller process node than 0.25 micron, representing a step forward in the fab’s manufacturing capability. The wafer diameter and process node describe different things—the former is the size of the silicon wafer; the latter identifies a generation of manufacturing technology.
Contemporary reporting said SMIC planned to begin 0.18-micron production by the end of 2002. A later EE Times report said the company had completed 0.18-micron engineering wafer samples in March and planned production in the new 8-inch fab by year-end. These are reported milestones and plans; they do not establish the date or scale at which volume production began.
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- 5 x 5 inches, 0.67 ounces, 0.03 inches thick. Some wafers are marked with alignment marks.
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How to interpret SMIC’s 85,000-wafer figure
SMIC stated a target of 85,000 8-inch wafers per month by the end of 2004. That was a contemporaneous capacity target, not independently verified output. It should not be read as the amount Chartered was guaranteed under the alliance: the available announcement does not specify a capacity volume or term for Chartered’s access.
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What the public terms do—and do not—establish
- Established: the announced exchange of process technology and patent-license rights for SMIC equity and capacity access, and the alliance’s non-exclusive character.
- Not disclosed: the equity percentage, valuation or cash terms, and the volume or duration of Chartered’s capacity access.
- Not established by the reported plans: completion of every detailed agreement or the precise timing and scale of 0.18-micron volume production.
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