12 inch wafers
Powerchip is to set up a joint-venture fab in the capital city of China’s Anhui Province with the Hefei city government the big idea is to build 12-inch wafers and provide foundry services mainly for driver ICs.
According to Digitimes, http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20150414PD200.html Powerchip is expected to become the second Taiwan-based foundry chipmaker, after UMC to construct and operate a 12-inch plant in China.
The company said that it will comply with Taiwan’s laws and regulations; to gain financial support from banks; and to prevent other companies from stealing its patents and technology.
Glory days
Once, Powerchip was Taiwan’s largest DRAM chipmaker in terms of production capacity but that has slid a bit over recent years.
The company provides 12-inch wafer foundry services for specialty DRAM chips, power management ICs, LCD driver ICs, CMOS image sensors, car-use ICs and others.
