Panasonic and Renesas Technology's semiconductor production partnership is to start operation of a process development line for the 28nm to 32 nm process node next month.
The future of this process technology partnership was one of the issues raised by the merger of Renesas with the semiconductor business of NEC.
NEC has its own process technology alliance with IBM at the 32/28nm node.
See: Renesas and NEC ponder 22nm options
"All options are open for 22nm", Matthew Trowbridge, chairman of Renesas Europe, told Electronics Weekly earlier this month, "it will be decided by the new company." The new company, to be called Renesas Electronics, will be formed on April 1st 2010.
This latest decision to open the 300mm wafer line at the Renesas Naka site in Hitachinaka City would indicate that the decision to continue the Panasonic partnership has been made.
The partnership between the two companies has already developed semiconductor process technologies for the 90 nm, 65 nm, 45 nm and 32 nm generations at the Renesas Kitaitami fab in Itami City.
The big focus for the 28nm process will be the fabrication of system-on-chip devices for next generation mobile communications applications and digital consumer systems.
One of the first decisions of the merged NEC-Renesas will be the issue of process development. NEC is an IBM partner at the 32/28nm node. Renesas is partnered with Matsushita in 32/28bn development. What will happen at 22nm?