chip maker

United Microelectronics Corporation is a chipmaker based in Taiwan with around a $10 billion market capitalization. It sells CMOS wafers, memory chips, and high-voltage integrated circuits, among other things. UMC has offices in Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, China, Singapore, the United States, and Europe, with over 17,000 employees worldwide.

About
United Microelectronics Corporation

The
silicon foundry business was where United Microelectronics
Corporation (UMC) established its niche. UMC is a leading silicon
foundry, or contract semiconductor maker, trailing only archival
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. Design, engineering,
manufacturing, packing, sorting, and testing are among the company’s
production services. It supplies
complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor logic wafers, mixed-signal
wafers, radiofrequency complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor
wafers, embedded memory products, high voltage integrated circuits,
and complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor image sensors through its
semiconductor foundry. UMC has offices in Taiwan, Japan, Korea,
China, Europe, the United States, and Singapore, and it continues to
expand capacity and invest in sophisticated manufacturing technology.
Taiwan is the company’s largest market, accounting for 33% of net
sales. Singapore (24 percent), the United States (12 percent), and
China are the other key markets (9 percent ).

UMC
is aggressively developing internationally. The corporation invested
$48 million in a subsidiary of Fujitsu Semiconductor, which has a
12-inch wafer manufacturing facility in Japan. In Xiamen, UMC has
formed a joint venture with the city government of Xiamen and the
state-owned Fujian Electronics and Information Group to establish a
semiconductor fabrication plant. Starting in 2015, UMC will invest
$1.35 billion in the initiative over five years. In January 2015, the
company bought a 33 percent share in Xiamen-based chipmaker United
Semiconductor as part of the plan. Taiwan’s first semiconductor
company, UMC, was formed in 1980. Since 2012, Yen Po-wen, who joined
UMC in 1986, has served as CEO.

Manufacturing
Diversification

With
numerous modern 300mm fabs in operation, UMC is a foundry production
leader. Since 2002, Fab 12A in Tainan, Taiwan, has been producing
client products in volume and is currently producing 14 and 28nm
products. Phases 1&2, 3&4, and 5&6 make up the
multi-phase complex, which is essentially three independent fabs. The
entire monthly production capacity of Fab 12A is currently above
87,000 wafers. Fab 12i, UMC’s second 300mm fab, is located in Pasir
Ris Wafer Park in Singapore. With a monthly capacity of 50,000
wafers, this second-generation 300mm plant is also in volume
production. United Semi, UMC’s third 300mm fab in Xiamen, China,
began volume production in Q4 2016. When fully equipped, United
Semi’s overall design capacity is 50,000 wafers per month. In October
of this year, UMC bought USJC in Japan. This 300mm fab in Mie
Prefecture has a monthly capacity of 33,000 wafers for logic and
specialty processes down to 40nm. UMC provides reliable and
diversified manufacturing with leading production efficiency, thanks
to its seven 200mm fabs and one 150mm specialized fab.

John
Hsuan and Robert Tsao

From
1979 to 1981, Mr. Tsao was appointed Vice Chairman of the Electronics
Research & Service Organization (ERSO), where he played an
important role. He was a driving force behind the establishment of
the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), where he oversaw
the development of Taiwan’s first integrated circuit manufacturing
line, which later became the foundation for United Microelectronics
Corporation (UMC), a semiconductor contract manufacturer that
produced chips based on the designs of its customers.

John
Hsuan, who is soft-spoken and aloof at times, has been a driving
force behind UMC’s recent metamorphosis from a small Taiwanese chip
producer to a major IC wafer foundry. UMC was one of the first
foundries to implement a 0.25-micron process, is a pioneer in
0.18-micron technology, and aims to ship products with copper
interconnects early next year. UMC is the world’s second-largest
pure-play foundry, behind Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.
Ltd., with sales expected to increase from $1.3 billion in 1998 to
$1.75 billion this year.

Roshni Ankola

I am a second-year student pursuing Liberal Arts from Nmims. I am a painter, I love reading and have a great interest in cooking. I am also a trained kickboxer. I’ve always had a passion for writing and hence in my free time, I work as a freelance writer.