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Customers Move to Most Advanced Chip Manufacturing Technology
DALLAS (October 25, 2004) -- Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE:
TXN) announced qualification of its advanced 90 nanometer (nm) copper
process on 300 millimeter (mm) copper wafers in its DMOS6 facility. By
expanding its 300-mm manufacturing to include the proven 90-nm CMOS process,
TI gives customers access to the many advantages that come with high volume
manufacturing at the most advanced technology node. Smaller, more highly
integrated, lower power products, along with the manufacturing cost advantage
that comes with 300-mm will result from this qualification.
Migrating the 90-nm process to 300-mm wafers allows TI to deliver up to
2.4 times more die per wafer over 200-mm, and reduces production costs
30 - 40 percent. The first products to result from the qualified 90-nm,
300-mm process include wireless baseband processors for advanced mobile
handset devices.
“TI remains at the forefront of bringing the most advanced semiconductor
manufacturing technologies to volume production,” said Kevin Ritchie,
senior vice president of Texas Instruments and director of worldwide manufacturing.
“As one of the first to qualify 90-nm process technology on 300-mm
wafers, TI is continuing its commitment to bring our customers products
with market-leading performance, power consumption, integration and cost.”
Continuing 90-nm Momentum
TI delivered its first 90-nm device in January 2003 from its 200-mm KFAB
facility, positioning the company among the first semiconductor companies
to deliver working 90-nm products. Today, TI has nearly 20 different products
based on the 90-nm process in various stages of production.
“By continuing its technology investments, TI maintains its ability
to own its technology roadmap and manufacture cost-effective, differentiated
products in volume production,” said Dan Hutcheson, president of
market research firm VLSI Research. “Fully qualifying its 90-nm
process for 300-mm production strengthens TI’s position among the
few companies remaining that can provide advanced chip manufacturing capabilities.”
With the ability to pack over 400 million transistors on a single chip,
TI’s 90-nm process drives cost-effective, system-on-a-chip (SoC)
solutions with the highest levels of performance and power savings. The
90-nm process features transistor gates as small as 37-nm with nine layers
of copper metal and its advanced integration capability supports a wide
range of analog and RF components, including the advanced Digital Radio
Processor (DRP) architecture. The process delivers a 50 percent improvement
in transistor performance over its fastest 130-nm transistor.
TI’s 90-nm process uses a collection of transistors that are “tuned”
for different functions on-chip to meet a variety of performance, density
and power consumption requirements. This is accomplished through adjustments
to the transistors’ gate length, threshold voltage, gate oxide thickness
or bias conditions. The result is that transistors with the highest performance
can be used for critical functions such as signal processing, while transistors
with lower power consumption can be used to support functions with lower
active performance requirements. TI leverages this approach across several
optimized 90-nm process flows that address a variety of end products and
applications. Sun Microsystems, for example, is expected to leverage the
availability of the 90-nm process on 300-mm wafers for its UltraSPARC®
microprocessors.
Advanced 300-mm Manufacturing
Located in Dallas, Texas, TI’s DMOS6 facility is the company’s
most advanced production facility with over 150,000 square feet of clean
room space and is leading the way for TI’s transition of its process
technology development to 300-mm wafers.
In July 2002, DMOS6 became one of the first 300-mm facilities in the world
to enter customer-qualified production on 130-nm copper wafers and will
have a combined output of 14,000 wafers per month by the end of 2004.
DMOS6 is capable of producing 30,000 wafers per month when fully utilized
as demand for its advanced products continues.
TI also announced today its strategy to further expand 300-mm manufacturing
with ground breaking of its second 300-mm facility in mid-November. The
new facility in Richardson, Texas, is slated for 65-nm production. The
planned site includes a clean room of over 220,000 square feet at the
center of over a million square feet of office, manufacturing and support
space. Once complete, TI’s new fab will produce a wide range of
digital signal processing (DSP) and analog-based SoC devices for wireless,
broadband and digital consumer applications.
# # #
About Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Incorporated provides innovative DSP and analog technologies
to meet our customers' real world signal processing requirements. In addition
to Semiconductor, the company's businesses include Sensors & Controls,
and Education Technology. TI is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and has
manufacturing, design or sales operations in more than 25 countries.
Texas Instruments is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the
symbol TXN. More information is located on the World Wide Web at www.ti.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
Statements contained in this press release regarding construction of a
wafer fabrication facility and other statements of management's beliefs,
goals and expectations may be considered forward-looking statements as
that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual
results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these
statements. The following factors and the factors discussed in TI's most
recent Form 10-K could cause actual results to differ materially from
the statements contained in this press release: the market demand for
semiconductors and the availability of incentives and approvals relating
to construction and actual costs of construction and the cost to manufacture
wafers. We disclaim any intention or obligation to update any forward-looking
statements as a result of developments occurring after the date of this
press release.
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