Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp.,

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., Huawei, imec, and Qualcomm Global Trading Pte. Ltd. to Announces Joint Investment on SMIC's New Research and Development Company
http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/priv...=233548015

Jun 24 15

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. Huawei, imec and Qualcomm Global Trading Pte. Ltd., to announced the formation of SMIC Advanced Technology Research & Development (Shanghai) Corporation, an equity joint venture company. The joint venture company will focus on R&D towards next generation CMOS logic technology and build China's most advanced integrated circuit (IC) development R&D platform. SMIC Advanced Technology R&D (Shanghai) Corporation will be majority owned by SMIC, while Huawei, imec, and Qualcomm will be minority shareholders. The current focus will be on developing 14nm logic technology. Dr. Tzu-Yin Chiu, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of SMIC will be the legal representative, Dr. Yu Shaofeng, Vice President of SMIC will be the general manager. This project is a major breakthrough in the cooperation model for IC manufacturers, international trade companies and research institutions. This project will facilitate closer cooperation between upstream and downstream companies, R&D, and other synergies in the industry's global eco-system. With the joint venture company oriented on innovation, it can target the demands of the industry more quickly and effectively through its R&D and manufacturing resources. Meanwhile, by enabling fabless semiconductor companies to join the development process as shareholders, the product development cycle can be shortened and the advanced process node tape out time can be accelerated. In the first phase, the joint venture company will develop 14 nanometer CMOS technology for mass production, which will be based on imec's knowhow in advanced semiconductor processing technology. The new R&D project will be done at SMIC's production line. SMIC will have the rights to license the required intellectual property rights on the mass production technologies of advanced nodes developed by the joint venture company, enabling these technologies to be applied to SMIC's current and future range of products and serve SMIC's business with other companies. This can improve the overall level of China's IC technologies, and is expected to facilitate the mass production of 16/14nm ICs in China by 2020, which is one of the goals set by the National IC Industry Development Outline. In the future, companies in China's IC manufacturing industry, universities and colleges, and research institutions will continue working together on this platform to further enhance the core competitiveness of the industry.