MOTOROLA "TO BE FIRST TO MOVE TO 12" CHIP WAFERS" 
(May 23rd 1995) Motorola Inc plans to go out on a limb and become the
first major manufacturer to make the switch to 12" from 8" wafers in
one of the new chip plants it is building, the San Jose Mercury News
hears. Motorola declined to comment, but analysts say signs of the
impending venture are abundant, and Roger Emerick, chief executive of
semiconductor process equipment maker Lam Research Corp in Fremont,
said his company was working with a US semiconductor company that
would announce next month plans to build a 12" wafer fab, which is
likely to be completed in 1998. 

The Sematech consortium believes it is vital for US firms to move
to12" wafers, and it reckons the move would ultimately cut the cost
per chip by 25% to 28%, but the outlay would be enormous - $2,400m to
build and equip a plant compared $1,200m for 8" wafer fabs. Intel
Corp told the paper that it was the first to move to 6" wafers and
found it such a painful and expensive process that it decided it is
too risky to pioneer. 
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