Intel Designates Irish Factory For 300 Millimeter Wafer Production

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Dec. 13, 2000 -- Intel Corporation today announced that its new wafer fabrication facility currently under construction in Leixlip, Ireland, will begin production in 2002 using state-of-the-art 300 millimeter (mm) manufacturing technology. The project, announced in June of this year, was originally planned as a 200 mm wafer fabrication facility. The new Irish fab will be Intel's second production fab dedicated to 300 mm technology and the first high-volume 300 mm facility in Europe. Intel currently has a dedicated 300 mm development fab in the final stages of construction in Hillsboro, Ore., and a production fab under construction in Rio Rancho, N.M.

"The addition of a second 300 mm production fab to our factory roadmap will significantly improve our asset utilization and improve our production capacity for future generations of products," said Mike Splinter, executive vice president and general manager, Technology Manufacturing Group. "These new 300 mm fabs will feature advanced factory automation systems to significantly improve productivity and yields."

The 300 mm wafer technology, based on silicon wafers that are 300 mm -- or 12 inches in diameter -- will allow more than double number of die per wafer and reduce costs by approximately 30 percent. Originally scheduled for first production in the second half of 2001, Fab 24 is now scheduled to begin production of wafers in the second half of 2002 as a result of the change to 300 mm technology. Fab 24 will include 135,000 square feet of clean room manufacturing space.

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