Infineon to Cooperate with Taiwanese Winbond and Mosel Vitelic to Secure Higher Memory Chip Production Capacity
Munich, Germany March 11, 2002 Infineon Technologies AG (FSE/NYSE: IFX) today announced that it has successfully concluded its talks with the Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturers Winbond Electronics Corp. and Mosel Vitelic Inc., both Hsinchu. Further strengthening its position in the memory market, Infineon has signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Winbond and agreements with Mosel Vitelic. With these steps Infineon will increase its total production capacity for DRAM chips by more than 20,000 wafer starts per month.
Under the terms of the MoU with Winbond, Infineon will license its advanced DRAM trench technology to Winbond and, beginning in 2003, gain exclusive access to standard DRAM chips manufactured using this technology. Under the terms of the agreement with Mosel Vitelic, Infineon is increasing its share in the output of their joint venture ProMOS Technologies Inc. from 38 to 48 percent, effective as of March 1, 2002.
Executing on our strategy to further strengthen our ties with Taiwanese partners, Infineon considers these cooperations as a major step to prepare for the upcoming market recovery, commented Dr. Ulrich Schumacher, President and CEO of Infineon Technologies. Shifting production capacity to Infineon along with building on our leading technology and cost position will pave the way for further augmenting our worldwide market position in the consolidating DRAM industry.
The technology transfer from Infineon will enable Winbond to manufacture standard DRAM products exclusively for sale to Infineon and to develop and sell proprietary products using Infineons DRAM technology. Furthermore, Infineon will receive license fees and royalties for any proprietary products designed and sold by Winbond using the relevant DRAM technology. Winbond will upgrade its DRAM facilities in Hsinchu to Infineons 0.11-micron technology which will lead to a cost advantage per chip. Subject to market conditions, Infineon expects that production at Winbond will begin with 256-Mbit DDR memory chips, with a potential future migration to 512-Mbit components.
In 1996 Infineon (formerly Siemens Semiconductors) and Mosel Vitelic formed their ProMOS joint venture for DRAM production in Hsinchu, Taiwan. Since then, Infineon also entered into several technology transfer agreements with ProMOS including 300mm technology and various generations of manufacturing process technology. ProMOS is publicly traded at the TAISDAQ stock exchange since May 1999.
Following Infineons 300mm manufacturing ramp up in Dresden, ProMOS is preparing to introduce 300mm technology as well. ProMOS is now qualified for production with the leading edge 0.14-micron-based technology licensed from Infineon last fall. The manufacturers main products include 128-Mbit and 256-Mbit DRAM chips in synchronous (SDRAM) and double data rate (DDR) configurations, primarily for use in servers and other computer applications.
Winbond Electronics Corporation was founded in 1987 and is based in the Hsinchu Science-Based Industrial Park, Taiwan. It has since become the largest branded IC company in Taiwan, offering a broad range of PC and peripheral-related ICs, consumer electronics ICs, multimedia ICs, and memory ICs. Winbond is a market leader in the telephone dialer, PC I/O controller, speech synthesizer and MPEG decoder markets. With four wafer fabs currently in operation, the company utilizes process technologies ranging from 1.0 micron down to 0.13 micron. Winbond has approximately 4,100 employees worldwide with design centers located in Hsinchu, Taiwan; Shanghai, China; San Jose, California; and Austin, Texas. World Wide Web corporate home page: www.winbond.com.
Mosel Vitelic designs, manufactures and markets main memory DRAMs, buffer memory DRAMS, specialty memory DRAMs, SRAMs, and flash memories. These products are used in many applications, including in server, workstation, desktop and notebook computers, computer peripherals, 2D/3D graphics accelerators, disk drives, CD-ROM drives, telecommunications, digital video and networking peripherals. Mosel Vitelic is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Further information is available at www.moselvitelic.com.
Under the terms of the MoU with Winbond, Infineon will license its advanced DRAM trench technology to Winbond and, beginning in 2003, gain exclusive access to standard DRAM chips manufactured using this technology. Under the terms of the agreement with Mosel Vitelic, Infineon is increasing its share in the output of their joint venture ProMOS Technologies Inc. from 38 to 48 percent, effective as of March 1, 2002.
Executing on our strategy to further strengthen our ties with Taiwanese partners, Infineon considers these cooperations as a major step to prepare for the upcoming market recovery, commented Dr. Ulrich Schumacher, President and CEO of Infineon Technologies. Shifting production capacity to Infineon along with building on our leading technology and cost position will pave the way for further augmenting our worldwide market position in the consolidating DRAM industry.
The technology transfer from Infineon will enable Winbond to manufacture standard DRAM products exclusively for sale to Infineon and to develop and sell proprietary products using Infineons DRAM technology. Furthermore, Infineon will receive license fees and royalties for any proprietary products designed and sold by Winbond using the relevant DRAM technology. Winbond will upgrade its DRAM facilities in Hsinchu to Infineons 0.11-micron technology which will lead to a cost advantage per chip. Subject to market conditions, Infineon expects that production at Winbond will begin with 256-Mbit DDR memory chips, with a potential future migration to 512-Mbit components.
In 1996 Infineon (formerly Siemens Semiconductors) and Mosel Vitelic formed their ProMOS joint venture for DRAM production in Hsinchu, Taiwan. Since then, Infineon also entered into several technology transfer agreements with ProMOS including 300mm technology and various generations of manufacturing process technology. ProMOS is publicly traded at the TAISDAQ stock exchange since May 1999.
Following Infineons 300mm manufacturing ramp up in Dresden, ProMOS is preparing to introduce 300mm technology as well. ProMOS is now qualified for production with the leading edge 0.14-micron-based technology licensed from Infineon last fall. The manufacturers main products include 128-Mbit and 256-Mbit DRAM chips in synchronous (SDRAM) and double data rate (DDR) configurations, primarily for use in servers and other computer applications.
About Winbond
Winbond Electronics Corporation was founded in 1987 and is based in the Hsinchu Science-Based Industrial Park, Taiwan. It has since become the largest branded IC company in Taiwan, offering a broad range of PC and peripheral-related ICs, consumer electronics ICs, multimedia ICs, and memory ICs. Winbond is a market leader in the telephone dialer, PC I/O controller, speech synthesizer and MPEG decoder markets. With four wafer fabs currently in operation, the company utilizes process technologies ranging from 1.0 micron down to 0.13 micron. Winbond has approximately 4,100 employees worldwide with design centers located in Hsinchu, Taiwan; Shanghai, China; San Jose, California; and Austin, Texas. World Wide Web corporate home page: www.winbond.com.
About Mosel Vitelic
Mosel Vitelic designs, manufactures and markets main memory DRAMs, buffer memory DRAMS, specialty memory DRAMs, SRAMs, and flash memories. These products are used in many applications, including in server, workstation, desktop and notebook computers, computer peripherals, 2D/3D graphics accelerators, disk drives, CD-ROM drives, telecommunications, digital video and networking peripherals. Mosel Vitelic is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Further information is available at www.moselvitelic.com.
About Infineon
Infineon Technologies AG, Munich, Germany, offers semiconductor and system solutions for applications in the wired and wireless communications markets, for security systems and smartcards, for the automotive and industrial sectors, as well as memory products. With a global presence, Infineon operates in the US from San Jose, CA, in the Asia-Pacific region from Singapore and in Japan from Tokyo. Employing about 33,800 people worldwide, the company achieved sales of EUR 5.67 billion in fiscal 2001 (ending September). Infineon is listed on the DAX index of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: IFX). Further information is available at www.infineon.com.
D I S C L A I M E R
This discussion includes forward-looking statements about our future business. These forward-looking statements include statements relating to future developments of the world semiconductor market, especially the market for memory products, Infineons future growth, the benefits of research and development alliances and activities, our planned levels of future investment in the expansion and modernization of our production capacity, the introduction of new technology at our facilities, the transitioning of our production processes to smaller structures, cost savings related to such transitioning and other initiatives, our successful development of technology based on industry standards, our ability to offer commercially viable products based on our technology, our ability to achieve our cost savings and growth targets. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of uncertainties, including trends in demand and prices for semiconductors generally and for our products in particular, the success of our development efforts, both alone and with our partners, the success of our efforts to introduce new production processes at our facilities and the actions of our competitors, the availability of funds for planned expansion efforts, as well as the other factors mentioned herein. As a result, our actual results could differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements.
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Information Number
INFMP200203.058e