United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC; ) is a Taiwanese company based in

Hsinchu Hsinchu (, Chinese: 新竹, Pinyin: ''Xīnzhú'', Wade–Giles: ''Hsin¹-chu²'') is a city located in northwestern Taiwan. It is the most populous city in Taiwan Province not among the special municipalities, with estimated 450,655 inhabi ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...

. It was founded as Taiwan's first

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical conductivity value falling between that of a conductor, such as copper, and an insulator, such as glass. Its resistivity falls as its temperature rises; metals behave in the opposite way ...

company in 1980 as a spin-off of the government-sponsored

Industrial Technology Research Institute The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI; ) is a technology research and development institution in Taiwan. Founded in 1973, ITRI has contributed to moving Taiwan's industries from labor-intensive to innovation-driven. ITRI is hea ...

(ITRI).

Overview

UMC is best known for its semiconductor foundry business, manufacturing

integrated circuit An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC, a chip, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuits on one small flat piece (or "chip") of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Large numbers of tiny ...

wafers A wafer is a crisp, often sweet, very thin, flat, light and dry biscuit, often used to decorate ice cream, and also used as a garnish on some sweet dishes. Wafers can also be made into cookies with cream flavoring sandwiched between them. They ...

for fabless semiconductor companies. In this role, UMC is ranked behind competitors

TSMC Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC; also called Taiwan Semiconductor) is a Taiwanese multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company. It is the world's most valuable semiconductor company, the world' ...

. It has four 300 mm fabs, one in Taiwan, one in Singapore, one in China, and one in Japan. UMC is listed on the

Taiwan Stock Exchange The Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporation (TWSE; ) is a financial institution, located in Taipei 101, in Taipei, Taiwan. The TWSE was established in 1961 and began operating as a stock exchange on 9 February 1962. It is regulated by the Financia ...

a
2303
UMC has 12 manufacturing facilities worldwide, employing approximately 19,500 people. UMC is a significant supplier to the automotive industry.

History

* On May 22, 1980, UMC was spun off from the

and was formally established as the first private integrated circuit company in Taiwan. * 1985: UMC was officially listed on the

(code: 2303). It was the first listed semiconductor company in Taiwan. At that time,

Morris Chang Morris Chang (; born 10 July 1931), is a Taiwanese-American businessman who built his career in the United States and subsequently in Taiwan. He is the founder, as well as former chairman and CEO, of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (T ...

was its chairman. * 1995: UMC decided to transform from an IDM company with its own products to a professional pure-play foundry. * 1996: Spun off its IC design units to establish

MediaTek MediaTek Inc. () is a Taiwanese fabless semiconductor company that provides chips for wireless communications, high-definition television, handheld mobile devices like smartphones and tablet computers, navigation systems, consumer multimedia ...

, Novatek, ITE Technology, Faraday Technology, AMIC Technology, and Davicom. * 1999: Fab 12A 12-inch wafer fab in

Tainan Science Park Tainan Science Park () of Taiwan is located in Sinshih, Shanhua and Anding Districts of Tainan City with a total area of , and is a part of the Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP). History On 1 July 1993, the Executive Yuan approved the es ...

was officially established. * 2000: ** Lists on the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its liste ...

(code: UMC) as Taiwan's first semiconductor company to do so. ** Produces the first chips using copper process technology and the first 0.13 micron ICs in the semiconductor industry. * 2004: 12-inch wafer fab in Singapore enters mass production. * 2008: Listed as a constituent stock on the

Dow Jones Sustainability Index The Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) launched in 1999, are a family of indices evaluating the sustainability performance of thousands of companies trading publicly, operated under a strategic partnership between S&P Dow Jones Indices and Ro ...

(DJSI) for the first time. * 2010: 30th anniversary of the company. * 2013: Fully acquires "

Hejian Technology Hejian Technology Corporation (in ) is China's second largest semiconductor foundry A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the ...

Wafer Fab" in Suzhou,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. * 2015: USCXM 12-inch wafer fab located in Xiamen, Fujian Province, China was officially established. * 2017: 28 nm mass production begins at USCXM in Xiamen, China. * 2019: Fully acquired Japan-based

Mie Fujitsu Semiconductor Mie may refer to: Places * Mie, Ōita (), a former town in Ōita Prefecture, Japan * Mie District, Mie (), a district in Mie Prefecture, Japan * Mie Prefecture (), a prefecture of Japan * Mie University (), a national university in Tsu, Mie Prefe ...

. * 2020: Reached a plea agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to resolve a 2018 trade secrets case.

U.S. Indictment and guilty plea

The

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United Stat ...

indicted UMC and Chinese firm Fujian Jinhua in 2018, alleging that they conspired to steal intellectual property from U.S. company

Micron The micrometre ( international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: μm) or micrometer (American spelling), also commonly known as a micron, is a unit of length in the International System of Un ...

. In October 2020, UMC and the U.S. Department of Justice reached a plea agreement, with UMC pleading guilty to one count of receiving and possessing a stolen trade secret and agreeing to pay a fine of $60 million. UMC’s plea and Plea Agreement resolved the 2018 trade secrets case brought against UMC by the U.S. Department of Justice. As part of the Plea Agreement, DOJ agreed to dismiss the original indictment against UMC, including allegations of conspiracy to commit economic espionage and conspiracy to steal multiple trade secrets from Micron Technology, Inc. (“Micron”), patent-related allegations, and alleged damages and penalties of $400 million USD to $8.75 billion. The one trade secret at issue in the guilty plea and Plea Agreement related to older technology that had been in mass production worldwide for several years. DOJ also dismissed a related civil case against UMC. Aside from the fine amount, UMC has no further financial obligations to DOJ. The Plea Agreement also provides that UMC will cooperate with DOJ and will be subject to a three-year term of non-supervised probation.

Fab list

Processes

Notes

References

External links

*
Yahoo! Finance Profile of UMC

Reuters Profile

UMC Japan
{{Authority control Manufacturing companies based in Hsinchu Manufacturing companies established in 1980 Companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange Semiconductor companies of Taiwan Foundry semiconductor companies Taiwanese brands Taiwanese companies established in 1980 Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange