Lessons Learned from the 300 mm Transition

Abstract

The 300mm transition required unprecedented levels of industry collaboration, standardization, and investment. This paper reviews the experiences of the 300mm transition and what we have learned, and offers a strategy to comprehend those learnings and improve as we move forward into the 450 mm transition Consensus on an industry strategy for a next transition must be driven by rigorous economic and market analysis. Modeling based on supplier and device maker data must support evaluation and analysis of alternatives to validate assumptions and tradeoffs, economic and architectural attributes. The strategy should comprehend technology nodes and new or alternate substrate and process technologies. A vision for opening the architecture of next generation 300mm fab configuration before the transition to the next wafer size occurs enables more flexibility for high mix business models and allows a more cost-effective scale-up from 300mm to 450 mm.