Tokyo -- Toshiba Corporation and Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing have entered into a 5-year partnership agreement that calls for technology and manufacturing cooperation on embedded DRAMs, a burgeoning semiconductor business segment based on leading-edge system on silicon technology.

Under terms of the agreement, Toshiba will license its embedded DRAM technology to Chartered, beginning first with 0.35 micron and migrating to 0.25 micron. After process qualification, Chartered will manufacture embedded DRAM products for Toshiba and other customers. The agreement allows Chartered to enter the fast growing embedded DRAM market, and enables Toshiba to secure a reliable second source for embedded DRAM based on Toshiba's technology. The first embedded DRAM products produced under the partnership of Toshiba and Chartered are expected to emerge in the market in 1998. The 0.35 micron and 0.25 micron embedded DRAMs will be manufactured in Chartered's new Fab3, which will serve Chartered diverse customer base.

These embedded DRAMs will employ trench-capacitor technology, currently used in Toshiba's 16-megabit and 64-megabit DRAMs. The trench-capacitor has several key advantages over the stack structure for embedded applications, including quick ramp-up of products, and a high level of reliability due to larger cell capacitance and low temperature process.

"Since its founding, Chartered has offered its customers an array of memory technologies. Today's agreement with Toshiba expands that offering and lets us enter the embedded DRAM market with a process and products that match our customers' needs. When Chartered is selected to produce products with embedded DRAM, customers will receive devices based on Toshiba's proven product technology manufactured to the highest specifications of Chartered's foundries,"said Tan Bock Seng, CEO and president of Chartered Semiconductor.

Keiichi Kawate, general manager of the Micro & Custom LSI Division of Toshiba's Semiconductor Group, said, "We see embedded DRAM as one of the essential technologies for next-generation products in the future.

The agreement with Chartered will ensure the capacity for Toshiba to support the market demand that we foresee as very promising."

Embedded DRAMs integrate traditional DRAMs with digital logic on the same chip using a common process. Such integration offers the benefits of lower package count, reduced power utilization, and more accurate sizing of the amount of DRAM required in a particular application. They are targeted to the fast-growing graphics market and are ideal for portable applications where products require low power consumption with a small silicon footprint.

In 1994, Chartered and Toshiba had agreed on the development of a 0.5 micron CMOS process which was completed successfully. The current technology and manufacturing program is the second joint agreement for the companies.

Headquartered in Tokyo, Toshiba Corporation is a world-leading semiconductor manufacturer with a global semiconductor revenue of 890 billion yen for the fiscal year ended in March 1997. The company is implementing a number of key programs to further enhance its capabilities for the system-on-silicon era, including the start of 0.25 micron based embedded DRAM production at its Oita plant in Japan during the second half of the current fiscal year.

Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing is a pure-play foundry providing quality manufacturing and exceptional service for customers worldwide. Chartered offers a full complement of advanced technologies which include deep sub-micron CMOS logic, memory and mixed signal processes.

All production fabs are certified to ISO9002 standards. In addition, Chartered offers a full turnkey service from process technology application and mask generation to delivery of tested packaged parts.

A member of Singapore Technologies, Chartered is headquartered in Singapore with offices in the United States, Europe, Japan, and Taiwan. Chartered's Web address is http://www.csminc.com.