ISMI News
NEC Electronics Joins International SEMATECH Manufacturing Initiative
Austin, TX (25 July 2006) – Japanese semiconductor industry pioneer NEC Electronics Corporation has joined the International SEMATECH Manufacturing Initiative (ISMI), adding global support to the 2½-year-old manufacturing‑oriented microchip consortium, and increasing NEC’s access to manufacturing infrastructure, methods, standards, and productivity.
Entering a collaboration that already embraces 13 other ISMI members, NEC will send assignees to work in programs that concentrate on reducing cost per wafer, and ultimately cost per die, through cooperative projects focused on manufacturing effectiveness.
Semiconductor producers Panasonic, Spansion LLC, Samsung, and Renesas also have joined ISMI since its formation in January 2004 as a new consortium and wholly owned SEMATECH subsidiary. ISMI’s nine other members originated as SEMATECH member companies.
“NEC Electronics’s engagement with ISMI brings a terrific amount of technical depth to our consortium of leading microchip makers,” said Scott Kramer, ISMI director. “Our members are responsible for more than half the world’s semiconductor production, and so our influence to change the industry for the better grows with each new participant.”
“NEC’s presence in a wide range of computing, broadband and consumer markets brings important, additional depth to ISMI and its programs,” said Michael R. Polcari, SEMATECH’s president and CEO. “We look forward to the contributions that NEC assignees will make here, and to the member value that ISMI will convey in return.”
“We are pleased to become part of ISMI and contribute to this growing collaboration on how to improve productivity and reduce costs in today’s and tomorrow’s fabs,” stated Hideto Goto, executive vice president and member of the board of NEC Electronics. “ISMI’s benchmarking and productivity improvement programs are of particular interest to NEC, as we continue to focus on leading-edge, cost-effective manufacturing.”
ISMI’s core programs include fab productivity, equipment productivity, metrology, environment/safety/health, and 450mm. The consortium conducts projects within those program areas, guided in the short term by installed base industry needs, and in the longer term by critical strategic manufacturing requirements defined by consortium members. Focused ISMI efforts in e-manufacturing, standards development, statistical methods and fab industry modeling have helped accelerate the realization of future factory needs of the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS).
ISMI membership is open to all semiconductor manufacturers with fabs. Participating companies continuously evaluate and refresh the consortium's program content, which includes cycle time reduction, equipment productivity improvement, and fab benchmarking.
About NEC Electronics
NEC Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723) specializes in semiconductor products encompassing advanced technology solutions for the high-end computing and broadband networking markets, system solutions for the mobile handsets, PC peripherals, automotive and digital consumer markets, and multi-market solutions for a wide range of customer applications. NEC Electronics Corporation has 25 subsidiaries worldwide including NEC Electronics America, Inc. (www.am.necel.com) and NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH (www.eu.necel.com). For additional information about NEC Electronics worldwide, visit www.necel.com.