By Mark Osborne, Editor-in-Chief, Semiconductor Fabtech

ABSTRACT

Official new 300mm fab announcements picked up pace in this quarter compared with the previous quarter with a significant number of rumoured fabs in the pipeline.  Asia continues to be the cantre of attention, with Intel Corp. dominating the news with its announcement that it will build its first fab in China.  Although pure-play foundries had a relatively quiet year, 2007 is set to be rather different.  We review new fab announcements, tool install re-scheduling and foundry developments within this report.