LSI and its Agere unit filed the April complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington, accusing the chipmakers of violating its patent for making semiconductors using tungsten metal. The complaint seeks to block U.S. imports of chips that violate the patent.

“By instituting this investigation, the ITC has not yet made any decision on the merits of the case,” the agency said in a statement Thursday.

The patent, issued in 1993 to Bell Labs, covers a way of using tungsten rather than aluminum to make the chips smaller and is “a key semiconductor process patent,” according to the ITC complaint. LSI, based in Milpitas, California, said the patent is “widely licensed” to other companies, sometimes as part of lawsuit settlements.

Also named in the complaints are United Microelectronics Corp., Integrated Device Technology Inc., AMIC Technology Corp., Freescale Semiconductor Inc., Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., Microchip Technology Inc., Micronas Semiconductor Holding AG, National Semiconductor Corp., NXP BV, ON Semiconductor Corp., Powerchip Semiconductor Corp., ProMOS Technologies Inc., Spansion Inc., STMicroelectronics NV and Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp.

The companies are based in Taiwan, China, Switzerland, Japan and the Netherlands. U.S. Officials with the U.S.-based companies either had no comment or didn’t immediately return calls seeking comment. LSI also filed a civil lawsuit in Texas against the companies over the patent. That suit is likely to be put on hold until the ITC investigation is completed, which typically takes about 15 months.

The complaint is In the Matter of Certain Semiconductor Integrated Circuits, 337-648, U.S. International Trade Commission. The lawsuit is LSI Corp. v. United Microelectronics Corp., 08cv165, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas (Marshall).

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