SGS-Thomson Microelectronics NV is to invest $715m in a new submicron wafer fabrication plant in Singapore, adjacent to its existing manufacturing and Asian headquarters sites at Ang Mo Kio Industrial Estate. The plant will process up to 5,000 8 CM OS and BiCMOS wafers a week, to 0.5 micron design rules to start with but the equipment will be upgradable for finer design geometries. Construction on the plant, which will occupy 290,000 square feet of land and employ 600 at peak, is due to start in October, with volume production to start in late 1998. The plant will add 10% to SGS-Thomson’s current total chip capacity.
