AT&T;, NEC Corp. Units Join Forces to Make Super Chip
American Telephone & Telegraph Microelectronics of the United States and NEC Corp. of Japan announced Monday that they will jointly develop technology needed to make advanced future semiconductors.
The two companies will develop technology to etch and design semiconductor chips that use circuits just 0.35 microns wide, they said. A micron is one-thousandth of a millimeter.
The technology will be used for manufacturing by mid-1995, the companies said in a statement.
As manufacturers pack more and more components onto each tiny semiconductor chip, the size of the circuits and parts on each chip has to be reduced and the costs of developing the manufacturing technology grows.
The circuits are etched on the surface of semiconductors in a process somewhat similar to photography.
William J. Warwick, president of AT&T; Microelectronics, said the agreement will allow the companies to share resources, lower risks and develop technology more quickly.
The agreement is to extend through Jan. 1, 1993. The joint development efforts will be conducted at NEC’s laboratories in Japan and at the American company’s facilities in Allentown, Pa., and Orlando, Fla., the companies said.
They said they may share products and production lines in the future based on their common 0.35-micron production technology.
The two companies already have a cooperative agreement in semiconductors under which NEC provides AT&T; Microelectronics, a unit of American Telephone & Telegraph Co., with application-specific integrated circuit technology and in exchange uses the American company’s semiconductors in some of its equipment.
NEC is the world’s largest producer of semiconductors and also makes a wide range of computers and other electronic equipment. AT&T; Microelectronics produces semiconductors and other electronic components and power supplies.
