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Intel completing decommissioning of Leixlip Fab

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CIOL Bureau
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LONDON: Intel Corporation has said it is completing the decommissioning of its Fab 14 in Leixlip, near Dublin, Ireland. The decommissioning of the Fab 14 will reduce the number of wafer fabs that Intel Corporation operates in Ireland to 3 – which are numbered 10, 24, and 24-2.

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The Fab 14 in Leixlip, which began operation in 1995, is located in the middle of Intel’s vast site in County Kildare. According to company sources, there is a possibility that Fab 14 could get further investment and be recommissioned as a 300-mm wafer fab.

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Intel Corporation is celebrating 20 years of manufacturing in Ireland, However, company sources said, the long-term future of the site in County Kildare is likely to depend on a decision whether to bring the company’s 1270 (45-nm) or 1268 (32-nm) process technology to the site or to conduct pilot work on 450-mm wafers.

Intel has stripped the Fab 14 building back to a shell, and has even removed the perforated flooring used to enable laminar air-flow in the cleanroom areas.

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The Fab 14 was a 200-mm wafer fab, which was making relatively mature products based on older technologies. The final manufacturing activity of Fab 14 was manufacturing flash memory.

When Intel moved its flash operations into a joint venture with STMicroelectronics, called Numonyx, Fab 14 was not included in the deal. However, Fab 14 continued to supply product to Numonyx on a temporary contract basis.

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