UMC, a leading global semiconductor foundry, today announced that it has delivered customer ICs produced on its High Performance (HP) 40 nm process technology. The products were manufactured with excellent cycle time and yields for the large die-size programmable logic chips, which leveraged the foundry's triple-gate oxide, 12 metal layers and copper/low-k technology to enable 65% reduced power consumption and more than twice the density improvement over previous 65nm generation products. The advanced 40 nm ICs have already begun shipping in volume to the customer's end users for product sampling.

S.C. Chien, vice president of advanced technology development at UMC, said, "UMC continues to remain at the forefront of semiconductor foundry technology through the timely delivery of leading-edge processes that meet the demanding requirements of today's advanced applications. The delivery of these 40 nm customer products underscores this technology commitment, we look forward to bringing the performance advantages of our proven 40 nm technology to even more UMC customers."

The high performance 45/40 nm logic process is UMC's independently developed technology that utilizes advanced immersion lithography and incorporates the latest advancements such as ultra shallow junction, mobility enhancement techniques and ultra low-k dielectrics for maximum power and performance optimization. Multiple voltage and transistor options are available to satisfy the needs of a wide range of applications including high speed, low power, and analog/RF for system-on-chip designs. Currently, many customers have engaged with UMC for their 45/40 nm projects, with multiple product designs in various stages of production.