FAB FUTURES CAN EMBRACE DEVELOPMENTS IN CONCOMITANT TECHNOLOGIES

摘要

Question: what can you do with an old chip fab facility? This is the problem that faced the reborn UK-based Plessey Semiconductors after it bought back the Roborough, Plymouth, fab it had previously owned - and it's almost always faced an uncertain future. Soon after it opened as one of the most advanced fabs in Europe (if not the world), Plessey's Roborough site was under threat. Despite a near ideal geological location of which its builders boasted at the ribbon-cutting ceremony - far away from the threat of earthquakes unlike competitors along the west coast of the US or the Pacific Rim - GEC and Siemens were moving in to break-up Plessey. Plessey's used the Roborough facility as an example of what would be lost if GEC and Siemens were allowed to take the company over.