MUNICH -- Motorola and Siemens said Thursday they would make fully functional computer chips on 300-millimeter equipment, a semiconductor manufacturing advance that could cut costs by 30 percent per chip.
The companies said that the manufacturing process developed by their joint venture, Semiconductor 300, would enable them to make about two-and-a-half times more chips per wafer than under the state-of-the-art 200mm technology now used.
"This milestone paves the way to master the future challenges of this project and to successfully conclude this ambitious development," said Siemens executive Andreas von Zitzewitz, in a statement apparently translated from the German.
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