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Spansion hit by massive wafer quality issue |
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Oct 19, 2006 at 12:32 PM |
 Spansion Inc. revealed during its third quarter earnings call with financial analysts that the Fab 25 in Austin, Texas had been severely hit by a 200mm wafer quality issue during the quarter that resulted in 12,000 wafers that were either producing very poor yields or scrapped outright.
"We are caught here by some kind of unknown," commented Bertrand Cambou, President and CEO of Spansion Inc. "We have specifications for the raw materials. Those materials were essentially within our specs but different from any type of wafers we had seen in the past. When we [found] the problem...the 12,000 wafers [were] all ready in the line and that many affected the mature technology, but also leading edge technology."
Cambou noted that Fab 25 had been at 100 percent utilization at the time, as the company is struggling to meet demand for NOR Flash and MirrorBit Flash devices. He noted that production was now back on track and the wafer quality issue had been resolved, though improved quality control measures had now been implemented on incoming wafers to prevent another occurrence. Spansion did not identify the wafer supplier.
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