NXP discloses 90nm manufacturing shift to TSMC

NXP Semiconductors intends to outsource all its chip production beyond 90nm to foundry partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd, NXP CEO Frans van Houten disclosed last week.

Having decided to leave the Crolles2 chip alliance, NXP is accelerating the shift to TSMC's process platform. "The technology that we were developing in Crolles [is] available from TSMC, so why would we develop the advance CMOS process technology and be later to the market when it was already available from TSMC?" van Houten said.

NXP is investing around $1.34 billion annually in research and development. "We decided to redirect our investment to focus on differentiation on top of the TSCM platform rather than trying to reinvent a platform itself," the NXP chief added.

NXP plans to continue making larger node chips in-house and at SSMC in Singapore, a joint venture with TSMC that has 120nm facilities.

When Philips spun off its semiconductor division as NXP, Philips did not transfer its TSMC shares to NXP. "Philips retains the shares in TSMC while the operational working relationship is between NXP and TSMC," van Houten said.

"Our partnership with TSMC is such that it does not depend on share holding. It is a commercial relationship based on years of strong personal relationships," he said.

- Yoshiko Hara
EE Times