Months after sealing a landmark agreement to license Intel manufacturing know-how, a small Chinese foundry startup is gingerly presenting itself to the public, providing a few details of its business strategy in the rapidly developing Chinese chip market.

Nanotech, located in Changzhou city in east China's Jiangsu Province, says that it will license 0.35- and 0.25-micron CMOS process technology from Intel.

Intel also says it will help train Nanotech staff and sell the firm enough 200-mm wafer equipment to produce 15,000 wafers per month.

If all goes well, Nanotech will start fab construction toward the end of 2004 and be ready for production in early 2006.

Using Intel's "copy exact" approach to manufacturing, the company expects a quick ramp-up to 15,000 wafers per month.

A subsequent investment phase will support expansion to 30,000 wafers per month and bring total costs to about $600 million.

Source: CRI