UMC’s Flagship Fab Named One of 189 Smart Manufacturing Spotlights by World Economic Forum By Investing.com

Fab 12A in Tainan, Taiwan is among 17 new locations joining the Global Lighthouse Network

HSINCHU, Taiwan–(BUSINESS WIRE)–United Microelectronics Corporation (NYSE: UMC; TWSE: 2303)(UMC), the world’s leading semiconductor company, today announced that its first Fab 12A facility Tainan, Taiwan is selected for the World. The Economic Forum’s Global Lighthouse Network, a group of 189 regions identified as examples of powering the Fourth Industrial Revolution. (4IR) technologies to improve operational productivity, efficiency and sustainable productivity. Fab 12A, UMC’s main manufacturing and research and development facility, is also the first semiconductor facility in the world to receive Lighthouse status.

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Lamps were selected by an independent panel of experts based on their successful use of AI, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), big data analytics, and other digital technologies. The Global Lighthouse Network, founded in 2018 by the World Economic Forum and McKinsey & Company, now has more than 30 countries and 35 sectors.

UMC created a dedicated smart manufacturing unit in 2017, and chose Fab 12A as a test bed for digital transformation initiatives, which will be rolled out to other UMC locations. To date, more than 48 4IR solutions have been successfully integrated into Fab 12A’s operations and value chain, approximately 95% of which are developed or customized in-house. As a result, Fab 12A has reduced planning tool delivery time by 57%, increased product yields by 97%, and increased employee productivity by 47% 1, which greatly strengthens customer relationships, value and profit.

TS Wu, UMC Vice President and Head of Digital Office, said, We are honored to be recognized by the World Economic Forum as a pioneer in adopting smart manufacturing solutions to transform our business. 4IR is at the heart of UMC’s sustainable development, ensuring we are able to meet customer needs in an increasingly competitive market. Smart manufacturing is also about empowering our employees to focus on high-quality work and optimizing the use of resources to reduce environmental impact. We are happy to act as a beacon for other developers who want to use digital tools as well as learn from other Lighthouses in the network.

UMC focuses on the production of unique semiconductors, which have high quality but pose complex manufacturing challenges with their unique performance and strict performance specifications. The 4IR use cases implemented helped overcome these challenges and expand customer relationships for UMC’s specialized work, improving the company’s overall profitability.

To accelerate time to market for customers, UMC used machine learning tools to shorten the lead time for developing new applications by more than half. To ensure the accuracy and delivery of photomasks on time, UMC created an AI-enabled platform to facilitate data processing between the company, the customer and the photomask supplier.

In order to reduce cycle time, UMC used a machine learning algorithm and an intelligent gas supply system to target key bottle components. In addition, an intelligent root cause analysis system was established, which includes intelligent image recognition and automatic AI decisions, to quickly identify operational weaknesses and suspected hardware issues. This system has greatly increased the efficiency in identifying the cause of the problem and solving the problems of the equipment, effectively improving the yield.

Fab 12A consists of three separate but connected fabrics, with inter-fab production facilitated by the Intelligent Automated Material Handling System (AMHS). With 3,000 devices and approximately 68 million paths that a tablet can take throughout its manufacturing process, UMC has combined AI algorithms with standard AMHS to automatically assign the correct path. This improved the efficiency of workers and improved the utilization rate of equipment and transport vehicles.

See the WEF announcement about the latest wave of new members joining the Global Lighthouse Network, including the UMC.

About the UMC

UMC (NYSE: UMC, TWSE: 2303) is a leading global semiconductor company. The company provides high-quality IC services, focusing on logic and a variety of unique technologies to serve all major sectors of the electronics industry. UMC’s comprehensive technologies for IC processing and manufacturing solutions include Logic/Mixed-Signal, embedded High-Voltage, embedded Non-Volatile-Memory, RFSOI, BCD etc. Most of UMC’s 12-in and 8-in fabrics have primary R&D in Taiwan, with others throughout Asia. UMC has a total of 12 production facilities with a combined capacity of more than 400,000 wafers per month (12-in equivalent), all of which are certified to IATF 16949 automotive quality standards. .The UMC office is in Hsinchu, Taiwan, along with local offices in the United States, Europe, China, Japan, Korea & Singapore, with a total of 20,000 employees worldwide. width. For more information, please visit: http://www.umc.com.

Caution from UMC Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Certain of the statements made above are forward-looking within the meaning of US Federal Securities laws, including statements regarding the introduction of new services and new technologies, future offerings, competition , wafer capacity, business relationships and market conditions. Investors are cautioned that actual events and results may differ materially from these statements due to various factors, including general semiconductor market conditions and the economy; acceptance and demand for products from UMC; and technology and development risks. More information about these and other risks is included in UMC’s filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. UMC does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.

1 All figures in this paragraph show % change between 2019 and 2023.

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Information connection
UMC Business Communications
Michelle Yun
886-3-578-2258 x16951
michelle_yun@umc.com

Source: United Microelectronics Corporation