China's largest microchip maker has opened the country's most advanced semiconductor manufacturing plant, launching China into the top ranks of the global chip making industry.

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC), founded in 2000 by a Taiwan executive who spent 20 years at US chipmaker Texas Instruments Inc., cut the ribbon on its fifth factory at a ceremony in Beijing Saturday.

The plant is China's first to process silicon wafers that are 300-millimeters in diameter. These yield more than twice as many chips as the previous generation of 200-millimeter wafers.

SMIC is partnered with German chipmaker Infineon and Japan's Elpida, a joint venture between NEC Corp. and Hitachi Ltd. to develop its 300-millimeter wafer technology.

(CRI September 28, 2004)