UMC to Skip 20nm, Gun for 14nm FinFET

TAIPEI — United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), which has once again become the world’s second-largest chip foundry, said Wednesday (April 29) that it will skip the 20 nm technology node as it aims to have 14nm FinFET tapeouts available for customers by the fourth-quarter of this year.

The Hsinchu, Taiwan company’s most advanced 28nm products accounted for 9% of its first-quarter revenue this year, ramping up from 7% in the fourth quarter last year as UMC gains a foothold in the technology node that larger rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) has dominated for nearly five years.

UMC will skip 20nm products and target 14 nm FinFET as its next technology node to catch up with foundry rivals Samsung and TSMC. Samsung started making 14nm FinFET chips earlier this year while TSMC plans to begin commercial production of 16nm FinFET products in mid-2015.

“We have had good progress and met our high-performance device target,” said UMC CEO Po-Wen Yen, during a conference call to announce the company’s financial results for the first quarter of this year.

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