Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (Seoul, Korea) held a ground-breaking ceremony to start its second round of investments in its Hwaseong semiconductor plant, marking the next step in a seven-year investment plan for the site. Samsung announced that it would invest $33 billion in the new phase of the Hwaseong plant, which will be located on a 230 acre site that will house a research and development facility and eight fabrication lines by 2012.
Samsung Semiconductor business President and CEO Chang-Gyu Hwang said, "By successfully executing on leading-edge research and development and manufacturing technologies, we are driving the adoption of innovative semiconductor technology solutions in the marketplace."
The company is also launching a next-generation research and development line scheduled to begin operations in May 2006. The line will be a double-tiered clean room structure with adjoining office space for research and development of next-generation technologies, including nano and process technology, and other materials for memory and system LSI semiconductors. Samsung expects to invest approximately $860 million in this second 300 mm research and development line, which is the newest of Samsung’s five existing dedicated research and development lines.
The first fabrication line is currently under construction in the second-phase of Hwaseong. Line 15 is slated to be introduced in the first half of 2006. Out of eight new fabrication lines, Samsung expects four to be designed for capacities higher than conventional lines with the possibility of a 300 mm or larger wafer-unit. The entire expansion project is expected to bring about 14,000 new jobs to Korea.
