SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Following Taiwan's labor laws, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC) this week said that it issued documents on April 3 to over 200 former employees ''certifying that their employment was terminated due to deteriorating business conditions.''
''Under the auspices of the Bureau of Labor Affairs, we reached an agreement with all representatives of former employees to issue substantial severance payments based on seniority, which comes in addition to severance already paid in accordance with Taiwan labor law,'' according to the silicon foundry giant on its Web site.
''The above measures apply to all employees who ended employment between December 1, 2008, and March 31, 2009 due to dismissal or voluntary resignation,'' according to TSMC (Hsinchu, Taiwan).
Business has improved at TSMC and other foundries. But still, the company expects a drop in sales in the first quarter, followed by a rebound in the second period.
Despite a slump in monthly sales, silicon foundry giant TSMC recently raised its forecast for Q1. Rival United Microelectronics Corp. this week reported unaudited net sales for the month of March 2009. Sales were NT$4.541 billion ($134.4 million), down 46.56 percent year-over-year, but up 44.45 percent from the last month. From January to March, sales were NT$10.838 billion ($320.6 million), down 54.85 percent over a year ago.
UMC also announced that it has delivered customer ICs produced on its 40-nm process technology. The devices leveraged the foundry's triple-gate oxide, 12 metal layers and copper/low-k technology to enable 65 percent reduced power consumption and more than twice the density improvement over previous 65-nm generation products, according to UMC (Hsinchu).
UMC has already announced the process. The advanced 40-nm ICs have already begun shipping in volume to the customer's end users for product sampling.
The 45/40-nm logic process utilizes advanced immersion lithography and incorporates ultra shallow junction technology, mobility enhancement techniques and ultra low-k dielectrics for maximum power and performance optimization.
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