UMC Obtains Advanced Process Tools through Texas Instruments

HSINCHU, Taiwan, July 15 – United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) (NYSE: UMC; TSE: 2303), today announced it will further increase its production capacity with the purchase of numerous advanced 300mm CMOS manufacturing tools. The tools will be bought from Texas Instruments (TI) upon closure of a larger asset purchase in Japan that was just announced by TI.

"Our mutually strong relationship with TI provides us this opportunity to work together to obtain leading-edge 300mm fab equipment at a lower cost and with faster delivery times, compared to placing orders for new equipment," said Dr. Shih-Wei Sun, CEO of UMC. "These significant advantages will help us better address our customers' advanced production needs as demand for our foundry services continues to be strong."

"UMC is an important foundry partner to us, and we are pleased that we can support them and work closely with them in adding new capacity for customers," said Kevin Ritchie, senior vice president and manager of TI's Technology and Manufacturing Group.

UMC (NYSE: UMC, TSE: 2303) is a leading global semiconductor foundry that provides advanced technology and manufacturing services for applications spanning every major sector of the IC industry. UMC's customer-driven foundry solutions allow chip designers to leverage the strength of the company's leading-edge processes, which include production proven 65nm, 45/40nm, mixed signal/RFCMOS, and a wide range of specialty technologies. Production is supported through 10 wafer manufacturing facilities that include two advanced 300mm fabs; Fab 12A in Taiwan and Singapore-based Fab 12i are both in volume production for a variety of customer products. The company employs approximately 13,000 people worldwide and has offices in Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Europe, and the United States. UMC can be found on the web at http://www.umc.com.