Conexant signs five-year foundry agreement with UMC

Conexant Systems Inc., Newport Beach, Calif., has signed a five-year supply agreement with United Microelectronics Corp.

Under the terms of the agreement, UMC will serve as Conexant's principal CMOS foundry partner through 2006. UMC, which has produced ICs for Conexant since 1998, will offer Conexant 0.13-micron processes while Conexant will offer UMC its proprietary CMOS process technologies. Specifically, Conexant will use UMC's foundry for the production of CMOS-based wireless, multimedia, and PC applications

``With this agreement, Conexant now has a secure and committed path to a fabless business model for advanced CMOS processes," said Dwight W. Decker, Conexant's chairman and chief executive. "We will no longer be required to make the research and development and capital investments associated with advanced CMOS process development and manufacturing.''

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.