在近日于上海開幕的Semicon China上，一直保持低調(diào)態(tài)度的中國晶圓代工業(yè)者武漢新芯(Wuhan Xinxin Semiconductor Manufacturing)以新創(chuàng)晶圓代工廠之姿現(xiàn)身，并公布了新的企業(yè)識別標(biāo)志與名稱──英文簡稱為XMC 。 XMC擁有一支國際化的管理團隊，幾乎半數(shù)主管都擁有跨國企業(yè)經(jīng)驗，曾任職于英特爾(Intel)、IBM與特許(Chartered)等半導(dǎo)體大廠。 產(chǎn)業(yè)界對“武漢新芯”這家公司的印象，可能總是與中芯國際(SMIC) 聯(lián)想在一起，但XMC的高層傾向于消除那一段記憶。曾任職IBM長達25年，目前在XMC執(zhí)掌市場行銷與業(yè)務(wù)的高層主管 Walter Lange 接受EETimes美國版編輯訪問時表示，該公司“經(jīng)常被誤解”，而今日的XMC：“已經(jīng)不再是中芯國際的姊妹公司?！? XMC 被認(rèn)為與中芯國際關(guān)系緊密，應(yīng)是回溯到2006年武漢市官方建立該晶圓廠那時，委托中芯國際管理該晶圓廠，而武漢市政府會支付中芯一筆“托管費”。一開始 看起來這對中芯國際來說是筆輕松生意，但產(chǎn)業(yè)界當(dāng)時咸認(rèn)中芯國際對武漢新芯的管理有點心不在焉，而且成效也不盡理想，并未讓該公司在晶圓代工市場闖出名號。 今日的XMC已經(jīng)脫胎換骨； Lange表示，該公司并不是要以市場上晶圓代工龍頭臺積電(TSMC)，或是新秀 Globalfoundries 等具備先進制程的同業(yè)為競爭目標(biāo)，而是定位為一家“提供主流制程服務(wù)”的晶圓代工廠，而他們鎖定“差異化(with a twist)”的技術(shù)開發(fā)，也就是與特定客戶在合作一開始就緊密聯(lián)系、了解他們的制程需求，提出客制化的制程方案。

FlUesmc

本文授權(quán)編譯自EE Times，版權(quán)所有，謝絕轉(zhuǎn)載 本文下一頁：XMC的客戶群何在？

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{pagination} XMC制程技術(shù)藍圖 而有些業(yè)界人士可能誤以為XMC就是一家位處邊陲地帶、使用二手舊設(shè)備、表現(xiàn)不怎樣的中國晶圓廠，但Lange強調(diào)絕非如此；他表示，XMC是一家12寸晶圓代工廠，而且不是用8寸晶圓廠的舊設(shè)備改裝。 XMC 有兩條晶圓生產(chǎn)線，每條線的產(chǎn)能可達到每月3萬片晶圓；不過目前該公司只啟用其中一條生產(chǎn)線。Lange表示，現(xiàn)在XMC的產(chǎn)能開到每月1萬2,000片晶圓，產(chǎn)能利用率達到九成，而該公司并不會盲目沖高產(chǎn)量，會根據(jù)與客戶的協(xié)議來調(diào)整產(chǎn)能；他并指出，XMC的營收與2006年相較已經(jīng)成長一倍，而且“已經(jīng)達到正向現(xiàn)金流”。 至于XMC的客戶群何在？據(jù)該公司指出，AMD自2008年以來就與XMC合作，生產(chǎn)60納米與45納米的NOR閃存；此外XMC最近也宣布與中國NOR閃存供貨商北京兆易創(chuàng)新科技(GigaDevice)建立長期伙伴關(guān)系。 目前XMC生產(chǎn)的產(chǎn)品包括60/45納米MirrorBit NOR閃存，以及90/65納米ETOX NOR閃存，而該公司表示其設(shè)備可支持至32納米的邏輯與內(nèi)存制程，并有一條新的生產(chǎn)線，可支持3D IC制程。 除了Lange之外，讓XMC改頭換面的國際化管理團隊成員，還包括曾任職英特爾制程技術(shù)研發(fā)主管、特許技術(shù)長、中芯國際營運長的楊士寧(Simon Young)，他目前擔(dān)任XMC執(zhí)行長。執(zhí)掌XMC技術(shù)研發(fā)的梅紹寧(Shaoning Mei)，則曾任職IBM、飛利浦(Philips)與恩智浦半導(dǎo)體(NXP)，先前擔(dān)任華虹NEC首席技術(shù)官。 目前XMC擁有1,000名員工，其中包括20位海外專家；Lange表示，與上海相較，該公司的人員流動率較低，而在XMC任職的外地員工也有減少的趨勢，因為目前在武漢當(dāng)?shù)匾延胁簧俟こ處熑瞬趴晒┻x擇。 本文授權(quán)編譯自EE Times，版權(quán)所有，謝絕轉(zhuǎn)載 編譯：Judith Cheng 參考英文原文：Chinese foundry gets makeover, new ID，by Junko Yoshida

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{pagination} Chinese foundry gets makeover, new ID Junko Yoshida Newly minted XMC, formerly Wuhan XinXin, is not another not-so-successful foundry using hand-me-down tools located in the middle of nowhere. SHANGHAI--Wuhan Xinxin Semiconductor Manufacturing, a Chinese foundry company that has maintained a relatively low profile in the West so far, came to Semicon China Tuesday (March 19) to introduce itself as an independent foundry startup, complete with a new identify. Its makeover now a fait accompli, it has turned itself into XMC. The company has a newly installed international management team. Roughly half of its executives have significant experience at multinationals such as Intel, IBM and Chartered. XMC also announced an expanded partnership deal with Spansion on 32-nm flash memory production. There are industry observers who have followed the ups and downs of Wuhan Xinxin since the early 2000’s and were aware of its ties with Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) at that time. They might hold a very different view of the Wuhan-based foundry today. As though hoping to erase that memory, an XMC executive notes that the company “has been often misunderstood.” The executive, Walter Lange, stressed this point in an interview with EE Times. Lange, with 25 years of experience at IBM, is now responsible for XMC’s marketing and sales. XMC today, Lange emphasized, is “not a sister company of SMIC.” XMC’s perceived close ties to SMIC date back when the city of Wuhan built the foundry, breaking ground in 2006. At that time, SMIC offered to “manage” the foundry, and earned money by charging Wuhan a business management fee. While that looked like a cushy deal for SMIC in the beginning, industry critics recall that SMIC “managed” Wuhan Xinxin “half-heartedly” and brought disappointing results, failing to create a strong foundry presence. XMC also claims to be different today because it’s not chasing down the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) or Globalfoundries Inc. XMC is set up to do foundry service that’s “anything but a mainstream offering,” said Lange. Rather than competing head-to-head with TSMC on the bleeding-edge process technology race, XMC is focused on developing technology “with a twist,” as Lange put it. XMC sees its mission as close partnerships with selected customers from the get-go, while discussing manufacturing process requirements with them. “We customize our process technology for our customers,” Lange explained. Many observers might falsely recognize XMC as yet another not-so-successful Chinese foundry located in the middle of nowhere, using hand-me-down tools. XMC is definitely not that, according to Lange. Even though sometimes described as a “second-tier city,” Wuhan has a population of 10 million, said Lange, with a million college students. Located at the joint of the Yangtze and Han Rivers, Wuhan is at almost equidistant (two-hour flight) from Beijing or Shanghai. Wuhan is at almost equidistant from Beijing or Shanghai Room to grow XMC is a foundry with 300-mm wafers, saddled with no legacy of old 200-mm wafers. XMC has two fab shells, each with a capacity of 30,000 wafers per month. While the company currently uses only one shell, it has the capacity to handle 60,000 wafers per month in total when fully equipped. Today, XMC is churning out 12,000 wafers per month, “90 percent of which are filled,” said Lange. “We don’t believe in ‘build it, they will come.’ We are ramping up our capacity based on partner engagements,” explained Lange. Lange claimed that the foundry has been doubling its revenue since 2006, and “we are already cash flow positive.” So, who are XMC’s customers? Spansion has been working with XMC since 2008, with XMC doing both 60-nm and 45-nm productions for Spansion’s NOR Flash. XMC also recently announced a long-term supply agreement with GigaDevice, a Beijing-based, red hot NOR flash company, poised to grow its business worldwide. XMC has another partner, whose identity the foundry declined to disclose. This unnamed partner alone, however, is using up to10,000 wafers per month, according to Lange. Due to its customization strategy, XMC won’t be able to serve hundreds of customers, but the company appears to have several more “partners.” XMC’s current products include 60-45nm MirrorBit NOR Flash and 90-65nm ETOX NOR Flash. The company claims to have equipment capacity to support logic and memory down to 32nm. XMC also has a new specialty technology line to support 3D IC (Wafer backside processing and stacking). Critical partner for Spansion As Spansion drives its flash memory products further into embedded markets such as automotive, telecommunication, industrial and CE products, “Our expanded deal with XMC becomes critical for our NOR flash memory products in the future,” said Jackson Huang, vice president at Spansion. XMC, already proven as a faithful partner to AMD, has been augmenting products manufactured at Spansion’s own fab in Austin, Texas. “XMC is important to Spansion’s fab-lite strategy,” Huang added. Huang also added that as a graphical user interface in embedded systems gets more complex requiring fast response, “we need to be able to offer higher density, higher performance, cost-effective NOR flash at 32-nm node.” XMC’s fab is qualified to produce Spansion’s embedded NOR flash products for the automotive market, getting all of its certifications in order. The performance level [of embedded NOR flash] can be maintained at high, even extreme temperature. XMC also promises the longevity [as long as 10 years or more] of such NOR flash, required for telecommunication equipment. Perhaps most important in the XMC makeover is its completely new management team. Roughly half the top executives have international backgrounds. Its CEO Simon Young cut his teeth as R&D and manufacturing director of logic technology at Intel. He later worked at Chartered Semiconductor as CTO. Then Young became COO at SMIC. Shaoning Mei, responsible for XMC’s technology development, previously worked at IBM, Philips and NXP, and later served as CTO of Huahong NEC. Lange, the ex-IBMer, helped the Big Blue establish IBM Common Platform and its partnership strategy. He takes pride in that the playbook he helped write for IBM is now being applied to XMC – in fostering its partnership strategy. Lange also served as VP of marketing at Chartered Semiconductor. Through his Chartered days, he got to know Young, who gave Lange a call last summer and asked him to join in Wuhan. Today, XMC has about 1,000 employees including 20 overseas experts. “Compared to Shanghai, the turnover of our workforce is much lower, and the number of expats working for XMC is dropping since we can now hire engineers locally,” said Lange. XMC's booth at Semicon China