Atmel’s North Tyneside wafer fab will be the first of the firm’s stable to install its upcoming 0.13µm non-volatile memory process.

Installation of the process is “well on the way” according to a spokesman. It demonstrates a commitment to European wafer manufacturing despite the announcement this month that 1st Silicon, the Malaysian foundry, had started manufacturing Atmel’s serial flash products.

“Going to 1st Silicon has zero implications for European manufacturing,” Atmel’s Peter Bishop told Electronics Weekly.

“Capacity and throughput will continue in Europe as planned. All advanced runs, and the first runs of new products, will continue to be done in Europe and will be made in Europe until price becomes the overriding issue,” he said.

Atmel continues to develop its non-volatile memory at Rousset in the South of France on a pilot line next to its production fab.

“We have a pilot line for 90nm and 65nm and are dong the engineering development using that,” said Bishop.

1st Silicon is making Atmel’s products on a 0.18µm process. It will also manufacture 0.18µm mixed signal products and will get the 0.13µm process.

“We have had engineers at 1st Silicon for some years to make sure they are process compatible with us,” said Bishop. “It gives us an internal second source for products, and some customers insist on us having a second source in case anything goes wrong.”

With flash industry leaders such as Samsung and Toshiba already on 70nm processes for discrete devices, Atmel is focussing on embedded flash where predictable 0.18µm processes are a rarity.

“For things like microcontrollers with embedded non-volatile memory,” said Bishop, “we have an awful lot of customers that want to buy from us.”

www.atmel.com