China's largest microchip developer Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., or SMIC, has opened its fifth factory on Saturday in Beijing.

The new plant is the country's first and most advanced one to process silicon wafers that are 300 millimetres in diameter, which can yield about three times as many chips as the previous 200 millimetres wafers.

Experts indicate this move is an important breakthrough for China's semiconductor industry because so far only several world leading semiconductor developers can afford the billon-dollar project of manufacturing 300 millimetre wafers.

It is learnt that China will become the world's largest maker of semiconductors in 2006.
(Photo Source: Xinhua)

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