oct 07 update

Government officials in China have officially inaugurated the first stage of a massive compound semiconductor epiwafer and chip production base in Shenzhen.

Called Century Epitech Company, Ltd, development of the sprawling site has the backing of both the central Chinese government and the Hong Kong financial group Sunbase.

Century Epitech will produce epitaxial wafers and raw material for the whole compound semiconductor industrial chain.

Spreading over an enormous 3 km², this site will eventually incorporate five individual "zones".

The epiwafer fab, which represents the first stage of development, was opened in a ceremony featuring bunting and fireworks on October 11. Production of epiwafers for GaAs-based RF components, lasers and LEDs is the initial priority.

Target technologies include all major compound semiconductor applications, from research and development of core materials, through to chip packaging and module production.

One of the base's five zones is focused on optoelectronics, including white LEDs for solid-state lighting, as well as laser diodes for optical data storage and communications. Another zone will be dedicated to microwave communications, while the remaining site areas are reserved for administration, conference facilities and an exhibition center.

According to Jacob Tarn, the general manager of fiber-optic component company Optical Communication Products' Asian unit, and also a key player in the Century Epitech project, solar cells and high-power laser diodes for industrial machining applications are two other applications that the base will target.

Driven largely by China's huge and growing energy requirements, and a strategic decision to pursue efficient lighting based on LED technology, III-V wafer production at Century Epitech looks set for a huge expansion.

Tarn told compoundsemiconductor.net that within five years, the base will rival that of key LED manufacturer Epistar in terms of its sheer epiwafer production scale. "There is a huge market in China for LEDs and energy production," Tarn said. "[This development] is strongly supported by the central government and is very important to China."

According to the official Century Epitech web site, the total investment planned for the Shenzhen base will be a remarkable RMB32 billion yuan ($4.3 billion). The epiwafer-focused initial phase that has just been completed is itself the result of a RMB3 billion yuan investment, and signals China’s enormous commitment to compound semiconductor technologies.

Century Epitech claims that the facility already features the industry's biggest cleanroom, and expects that the base will, in time, become the largest single compound semiconductor facility in the world.

NEC Adding Production Capacity

NEC Electronics Corp. (TSE:6723) has said that it plans to invest a total of 10 billion yen (US$87.8 million) to beef up its power chip production capacity by roughly 40 per cent.

As a first step, the Japanese chipmaker will spend 5 billion yen to add new lines at an existing factory operated by production unit NEC Kansai Ltd.

Construction at the Otsu, Shiga Prefecture, plant is scheduled to begin this month and be completed in June 2008. Mass production is to begin the following October.

The work will add 3,000 sq. meters (32,280 sq. ft.) to cleanroom facilities and raise the factory's output capacity for 200mm silicon wafers from 27,000 units a month now to 37,000 in fiscal year 2008. The extra capacity is expected to be used mostly to make power MOSFET (metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor) chips, which are used in motors and LCD backlights to turn power on and off.

By transferring most of the chipmaking equipment for the new line from another production unit, NEC Yamagata Ltd. in Tsuruoka, Yamagata Prefecture, NEC Electronics intends to keep the investment for this phase of the project at 5 billion yen or less.

Due to their use in a wide range of products, including digital consumer and automotive electronics, power chips give chipmakers steady revenue streams.

With the market growing by about 10 per cent in fiscal 2006, top semiconductor makers have announced plans to boost power chip production one after another.

STATS ChipPAC Opens Doors to New China Plant

Singapore-based semiconductor test and packaging service provider STATS ChipPAC Ltd. today announced the grand opening of a second 371,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Shanghai, China.

The company, which claims to be the largest full turnkey assembly and test service provider in China, said that the new facility almost doubles the company's current floor space of 422,000-square feet. STATS ChipPAC Shanghai offers high volume turnkey solutions including wafer probe, assembly, final test and distribution to support multiple customers in markets such as PC chipsets, computing, consumer and broadband applications.

"China is a growing market and an important strategic location for our customers and our company," Wan Choong Hoe, executive VP and COO of STATS ChipPAC, said in a statement.

In addition to the recent floor space expansion, STATS ChipPAC said it has been "rapidly building" its technology portfolio in China with advanced die attach and wire bond processes, advanced mold processes, film die attach and wafer thinning. STATS ChipPAC is also adding a turnkey flip chip solution from bump, sort and assembly to final test in China.

The company is no stranger to investing outside of its home country: STATS ChipPAC has had operations in China since 1995, and earlier this year acquired an assembly and test operation in Pathumthani, Thailand, for approximately $100 million.

The executive exodus occurred amid several takeover attempts, which the company very narrowly evaded. In March, Singaporean investment firm Temasek Holdings Ltd. launched an offer worth some $1.6 billion for the remaining shares in STATS ChipPAC that Temasek's holding company, STS, did not already own. At that time, STS owned a 35.6 percent stake in the company. By mid-May, however, Temasek and STS had garnered a majority stake of 83.1 percent of the company, less than the 90 percent stake it needed to take STATS ChipPAC completely private by delisting it from the Singapore Exchange and the Nasdaq.

Updated: Four Chip Makers in China Added to U.S. Export List

Four chip makers are among the five companies approved by the Commerce Department as "validated end-users" of U.S. technology exports to China, the agency said.

The five companies announced by the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) are: Applied Materials China, Boeing Hexcel AVIC I Joint Venture, National Semiconductor Corp., Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) and Shanghai Hua Hong NEC Corp.

The end-user program will "make U.S. exporters more competitive in China," Mario Mancuso, undersecretary of commerce for industry and security, said during a conference call on Friday (Oct. 19). Mancuso added that the agency's resources can now be shifted to other regions to "enhance security elsewhere."

Being designated by the U.S. government as a validated end-user means individual export licensing requirements will be removed on shipments of controlled items to the five companies. In return, the companies agreed to on-site audits by U.S. officials and strict record-keeping requirements Mancuso said he expects other U.S. companies operating in China to be added soon to the list. The program will soon be expanded to India, he added.

The five companies accounted for 150 export licenses between 2002 and 2006. BIS said the companies were approved based on, among other criteria, their non-military business operations in China and previous compliance with U.S. export controls.

Listing the five companies as validated end-users is a first step in implementing a new U.S. export control policy toward China announced in June designed to tighten restrictions on dual-use technology exports. Among the technology covered under the new export policy are avionics, composite materials and telecommunications equipment with military applications.

While Mancuso stressed close consultations with Chinese officials in developing the export policy, critics of the initiative have questioned the level of U.S.-Chinese cooperation. They point to a recent directive by China's Ministry of Commerce requiring that companies in China must receive goverment approval before submitting to U.S. on-site audits. The rub, critics said, is that validated end-users have already agreed to U.S. audits.

Mancuso sidestepped questions about the Chinese directive, saying only that "we consult with the Chinese" and that the export program is transparent to Beijing.

Without mentioning the Chinese ministry, Mancuso added: "We work closely with China, but this is an American program.

According to BIS, approved China facilities and technologies are:

Applied Materials' plants in Beijing, Shanghai and Wuxi that supply pressure transducers, semiconductor raw materials and spare parts for ion implantation, etching, wafer handling and lithography equipment.
Boeing's Tianjin plant that provides composite aircraft materials and machine tools for composite aircraft manufacturing.
National Semiconductor’s Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen facilities supplying analog-to-digital converters.
SMIC fabs in Beijing, Chengdu, Shanghai and Tianjin supplying semiconductor chemicals, materials and manufacturing equipment.
Shanghai Hua Hong NEC's Shanghai chip fab that also supplies chemicals, materials and manufacturing equipment.

The Commerce Department announcement made no reference to which, if any, semiconductor technology nodes are covered under the validated end-user program.

Critics said the China export program fails to define specific terms like "military use." The export control program "hasn't been thought through, said Donald Weadon, a Washington-based export attorney

Toshiba, Sony and SCEI sign a Joint Venture Deal in Production of PlayStation 3 Processors

Last month, a report from a Japanese news publication claimed Sony will sell its chip making business to Toshiba. Specifically, the facilities used to manufacture the Cell Broadband Engine – the CPU powering every PlayStation 3 console – would be sold to Toshiba in a deal that would complete sometime in 2008.

The day following the initial report, both Toshiba and Sony publicly denied such a deal. Sony’s been restructuring its chip business for months, but Sony spokesman Tomio Takizawa said “nothing concrete has been decided,” regarding its Cell Broadband Engine plant. Toshiba spokesman Keisuke Omori also said nothing has been decided on such a deal.

Just a month after the initial report, Toshiba and Sony announced intent to establish a joint venture that will produce high-performance semiconductors, which not only includes the Cell Broadband Engine but also the RSX graphics engine. The deal also includes the transfer to Toshiba from Sony Group the 300mm wafer line fabrication facilities installed in Fab 2 of Sony Semiconductor Kyushu Corporation's Nagasaki Technology Center (SKC) by the end of March 2008.

The new joint venture company, which has yet to be formally named, has a planned establishment date of April 1, 2008. Ownership of the joint venture will comprise of 60 percent Toshiba Corp., 20 percent Sony Corp., and 20 percent SCEI. Planned capitalization for the venture will be approximately 100 million yen ($857,000).

According to the joint statement, the facilities will continue to use the 300mm wafer line fabrication, with focus on 65nm process semiconductors. Toshiba and Sony Group will together target migration to 45nm process mass production, which will also logically extend to chips used in the SCEI’s game console. Current PlayStation 3 chips are built on the 90nm process.

Even with Toshiba’s majority control of the new company, the manufacturing plant will still serve regular orders for the production of chips used by Sony’s games machine. Toshiba says it will also use the facilities to expand and enhance its system LSI business.

The joint venture will move Sony back closer to its core business of consumer electronics, while Toshiba will gain another foothold on the semiconductor business. Toshiba recently announced a new chip called SpursEngine, which is based on the Cell architecture that is aimed primarily at graphics applications. The new facilities opened to Toshiba give the company greater flexibilities in its chip design and production, such as in the case of the SpursEngine.

SanDisk Opens Shanghai Packaging and Test Site

SanDisk Semiconductor (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. (SDSS), which is SanDisk’s first subsidiary in China with a total investment of $100M, recently put its advanced flash memory product packaging and test production line into use. Based in the Zizhu Industrial-Based Science Park, the site is positioned as SanDisk’s new headquarters for global operations.

SanDisk estimates that the facility’s production capacity can meet 30% of the demand for SanDisk’s mobile and other consumer products worldwide, with the remaining 70% outsourced to the company’s current packaging and test partners. At present, it has reached 30% of its production capacity.

Covering a floor space of 340,000 m2, the Shanghai packaging and test facility is dedicated to manufacturing system-in-a-package (SiP) flash memory package products, vertically integrating all testing and assembly processes. It receives wafers from Toshiba or other foundries, and delivers finished products in the form of memory cards to customers. The new facility will generate SanDisk’s state-of-the-art flash memory products, such as four- and eight-chip package-on-package (PoP) stacking required by microSD (Secure Digital), Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) and Memory Stick Micro (M2) cards.

SanDisk announced that it also plans to set up a local team for new product development, and its location gives it an advantage in recruiting the wealth of talent from neighboring leading universities — Shanghai Jiaotong University and East China Normal University (Shanghai).

Qimonda, Technical University Opens Non-Profit Research Lab

The product of a partnership between Germany-based memory maker Qimonda AG and the Technical University of Dresden, a new research lab in the form of a non-profit company, the Nano Electronic Materials Laboratory nonprofit GmbH (NaMLab), has been finished after 11 months of construction.

According to a statement released Monday by Qimonda and the university, NaMLab is the first company in the form of a "non-private public partnership," meaning that it emerged from partnership between a technical university and an industrial company.

At the site, a 300-mm fab and a large research and development (R&D) center operates, and 300 acres of large clean room are available. Twenty seven researchers and staff will focus on researching the development of new nanoelectronic materials, the duo said.

Qimonda and the university first agreed to undertake the JV in July 2006. The construction of the building came from a $7 million (5 million Euros) investment from the Saxon State Ministry of Science and the Arts and the EU Structural Funds.

Toshiba Opens 200mm Power Device Fab

Toshiba Corp. and Kaga Toshiba Electronics Corp. have opened a new 200mm semiconductor production fab in Ishikawa Prefecture targeting devices that control current flow and voltage conversion in end-use products such as TVs, mobile electronic products, and even hybrid vehicles.

A first investment phase is now completed at the 23,000 sq. m site, capitalized at 3.3 billion yen (US$28 million) and now employing 850 workers. Total investment in the facility is expected to be 55B yen (US$468 million) over the next five years, with output initially ramped to 60,000 wafers/month, and expansion beyond that to be based on market demand.

Toshiba Completes New Chip Plant in Ishikawa Prefecture

Toshiba Corp. has completed construction of a new semiconductor facility in Ishikawa Prefecture, central Japan.

The facility, designed to produce semiconductors on 200-millimeter wafers, will manufacture power devices, which are semiconductor chips that control current flow and voltage conversion.

Demand for such chips is rising for use in digital consumer products such as flat-panel television sets and mobile communications equipment, as well as for gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles.

Built on the premises of Kaga Toshiba Electronics Corp., a wholly owned Toshiba subsidiary based in Nomi, Ishikawa Prefecture, the facility will initially ship a monthly 5,000 wafers.

Toshiba will invest 55 billion yen by fiscal 2010 to eventually pull up the facility's monthly production capacity to 60,000 wafers.

Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida said at a ceremony to mark the opening of the new facility that Toshiba aims at becoming the world's largest producer of power devices, which the company considers a key product in its semiconductor operations.

In 2006, Toshiba had 8.3 pct of the global power device market, the third largest in the world, according to the company. It hopes to raise its share to 11 pct by 2009

Brazil Gaining a Semiconductor Facility

To date, Brazil does not have a wafer fab in production, but the nation has a smattering of IC design centers, as well as two discrete-component suppliers, including Brazilian company Aegis Semiconductors Ltd and Germany's Semikron International GmbH.

Brazil has only one IC assembly plant. In 2006, Smart Modular Technologies Inc. opened a memory-packaging operation in Atibaia.

Ceitec is also putting the finishing touches on what could be the nation's first semiconductor front-end wafer fab. The group is building a small-scale, 6-inch prototype fab in Porto Alegre, the capital of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The fab is expected to begin production in 2008.

Besides Freescale, there are eight or so entities that design ICs in Brazil, including Ceitec, the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology Inc. and the Wernher von Braun Center for Advanced Research.

Ceitec was launched by the government in 2000. In 2002, Freescale transferred some technology and donated equipment to the group. Thus far, Ceitec has spent some $100 million on its fab, which is expected to be completed in spring 2008. The fab will be capable of making 4,000 6-inch wafers per month. It is targeted to make chips at 0.6µm to 0.18µm geometries.

Ceitec also recently announced the Altus GBL chip, said to be one of Brazil's first homegrown IC designs. The ASIC device is geared for industrial automation applications, Dias said. Until the fab is completed, the ASIC is being made on a foundry basis by X-Fab Semiconductor Foundries AG.

Powerchip Refuses to Reduce Capacity

While its rivals have announced plans to limit sales on the spot market in a bid to control prices, the Taiwanese firm is moving ahead with its expansion plans.

Powerchip planned to spend NT$71 billion (US$2.18 billion) on new facilities and equipment this year.

Powerchip said its production would grow around 75 percent annually this year, with half of the increase coming from Rexchip Electronics Corp, a 50-50 joint venture with Elpida.

Rexchip produces 30,000 12-inch wafers a month at its first plant in Taichung. It planned to more than double monthly production — to as much as 70,000 wafers — in the first half of next year as planned, Tan said.

Rexchip held an opening ceremony for its first 12-inch wafer plant, which was attended by its chairman Frank Huang and Elpida president and CEO Yukio Sakamoto.

Rexchip announced late last year that it planned to spend NT$450 billion to build four 12-inch plants in Taiwan over the next five years.

It is now building the second plant in Taichung, which could start to make chips by the end of next year at the earliest, Tan said.

As for Powerchip, its plan to build two new plants in Hsinchu was stalled this summer when it was unable to obtain land from the government, Tan said.

The two new plants would produce NAND flash memory chips, which are used to store data for consumer electronics such as music players and digital cameras, Tan said.

Sematech Negotiating to Sell Austin Fab

Sematech (Austin, Texas) is negotiating to sell its Austin fab, the Advanced Technology Development Facility (ATDF) subsidiary, with one interested party being investors who earlier this year bought the Cypress Semiconductor Corp. research lab in San Jose, according to a report in Friday’s Austin American-Statesman.

If successful, the negotiations would set up a combined operation, including the former Cypress lab and the ATDF, serving a variety of customers including nanotechnology researchers, the report said. The state of Texas could designate the ATDF as the official state laboratory for nanotech research under a proposed state program called the Texas Alliance for Nanotechnology.

The ATDF was spun-out as a separate Sematech subsidiary in 2004, and has ~150 customers with >$50M in annual revenues. About 200 people are employed at the fab, although some ATDF staff have recently either been laid off or told that they must be prepared for a move to Albany, N.Y., where Sematech has several of its research programs.

While much of the equipment at ATDF is capable of processing 300 mm wafers, the facility remains classified as a 200 mm fab, while the Albany facility is a modern 300 mm facility. Sematech researchers said that the front-end transistor research work is well-suited to smaller wafers, which are less expensive. However, other sources said later-stage transistor research must be done on 300 mm wafers to prove manufacturing worthiness.

Russia Reinvigorates Semiconductor Manufacturing Capabilities

Russia is aiming to reinvigorate its fledgling semiconductor manufacturing in light of an expected strong new demand for electronic devices over the next four years. The demand is driven by the need for electronic IDs, passports, social security and transport cards, revamping of the GLONASS satellite navigation systems and, as with the rest of the world, increased demand for electronic games and digital televisions. The Russian IT market should reach at least $40B by 2010, according to Heinz Kundert, president of SEMI Europe.

The renewed interest in semiconductor manufacturing is part of a government-sponsored program called “The National Technology Base,” launched two years ago and includes the development of an electronic component base by 2011. The program’s goal is for Russian companies to reach a 50% share in the specialized electronics market and a 15% share in the consumer market. The funding from the federal budget will reach 23 billion rubles: ~15 billion of that will go to R&D projects, while ~7 billion will be spent to create modern design centers.

Russia’s nascent semiconductor design industry recently got a boost when IBM and Infineon said that they plan to sell their stakes in their joint venture Altis Semiconductor, including its manufacturing site in Corbeil-Essonnes, France, to Zurich-based Advanced Electronic Systems AG (AES). AES is an affiliate of GIS (Global Information Services), a Russian-based holding company with office in Moscow and Miami.

Existing semiconductor manufacturing facilities in Russia include Angstrem and Mikron JSC in Zelenograd, billed as Russia’s “silicon valley,” ~30 km northwest of Moscow. Mikron plans to open a production line based on 0.18 µm technology at the end of this year.

Martin Beigl, managing director of fab-builder M+W Zander (Stuttgart, Germany) said there is strong interest in modernizing in Russia. M+W Zander is setting up an office in Moscow, for which the requisite registration was acquired last year and all licenses for construction obtained this year. “Projects move slowly,” Beigl said, “but they want to build up semiconductor knowledge.”

Beigl said there’s interest in building a 0.35 µm fab, where M+W Zander would provide all of the logistics, including selection and delivery of the tools, which he said will most likely be refurbished. Developing an equipment list is a new business model for the company, which has traditionally been involved in equipping facilities only to the point of tool hook-up.

Mountbatten, UK Adds a Cleanroom

Another significant milestone has been reached in the reconstruction of the Mountbatten clean room. The Head of School, Professor Harvey Rutt, has just signed off orders for some key pieces of equipment that will support the research to be carried out in the new complex.

The total value of the equipment purchased is £6.6M (including VAT) and includes 11 items of equipment. The most significant equipment is the Jeol JBX 9300 FS electron beam lithography system, which cost £3.3M. It is used to write very small patterns in resist, with an ultimate resolution below 10nm, making it a very important tool for top-down nanotechnology research.

The equipment order also includes a package of deposition and etch equipment, which is used to deposit thin layers of semiconductors and insulators and to etch patterns that have been written by the e-beam lithography system. The etchers include two ICP etchers, one for metals and one for oxides, and two RIE etchers.

The two most interesting deposition systems are an OPT Nanofab 1000 and an OPT FlexAl. The Nanofab 1000 grows carbon nanotubes and silicon/germanium nanowires and is an important tool for bottom-up nanotechnology research. Since the existing technologies are about to hit fundamental limits – nanostructures like these may be the way round these limits. The FlexAl is an atomic layer deposition system that is used to deposit very thin layers of material, with thicknesses down to a few angstrom (1 angstrom = 0.1nm).

It is an essential feature of the construction of the new Mountbatten Building that it provides the incredibly clean and ultra-low vibration environment

Chartered Semiconductor Secures US$300 Million Financing For Fab 7 Facility - Update

Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd. (CHRT) announced that it has secured US$300 million in term loan facility from Japan Bank for International Cooperation or JBIC and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.

Chartered said it has planned to use this loan to support Phase 2 ramp of Fab 7, its first 300-millimeter wafer fabrication facility.

The loan will be drawn down in accordance with the ramp schedule of the fab and will be repaid over a period of five years, the company said.

RFMD to Build a $103 Million Single-Chip Integration Fab

The leading manufacturer of GaAs power amplifiers is to add a second 6-inch post-epitaxial processing plant to its Greensboro empire.

RF Micro Devices is constructing a $103 million fab to produce more highly integrated GaAs power amplifier chips for miniaturization-motivated cellphone makers.

The expansion will provide the PA maker with the capacity to produce wafer-level packaged SAW filters and develop “next-generation process technologies”.

The facility is intended to be production capable by late summer 2008 and will be sited in Greensboro, North Carolina, separately from RFMD's existing campus. Initially, it will employ 100 to 150 additional employees, but this will ultimately increase to over 300.

The new fab will be the company's second 6-inch post-epitaxial wafer processing line, on top of existing 4-inch and 6-inch GaAs fabs and its separately-housed MBE facility. RFMD will be spending more money on processing equipment for photolithography, metallization, wafer dicing and other fabrication steps.

The other current expansion effort ongoing at RFMD, the purchase of Sirenza Microdevices in a $300 million cash and $600 million stock deal, has recently received formal antitrust approval.

On June 30, at the end of its fiscal 2007, RFMD said it had cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments of approximately $700 million. This figure will now be much reduced, but the PA maker has significantly changed the industry playing field for the price.

DALU Polysilicon Co., Ltd. Holds Groundbreaking Ceremony for Polysilicon Production Plant

DALU Polysilicon Company, Ltd., a business unit of DALU Group, held a

groundbreaking ceremony celebrating its plans to build a polysilicon production plant in Hohhot, China.

DALU Polysilicon will build an 18,000 metric ton per year (MTY) polysilicon plant that will produce high purity electronic grade polycrystalline silicon material that can be used for both electronic and photovoltaic applications. Plans call for phased construction starting with an initial 2,500 MTY now and building to an ultimate capacity of over 18,000 MTY. The company also announced that it has signed letters of intent with Poly Plant Project (PPP), Silicon Chemical Corporation (SCC), and CH2M HILL Lockwood Greene. PPP and SCC will cooperate together to provide the advanced process technology for the project. CH2M HILL Lockwood Greene will provide engineering design, project management and related services for DALU Polysilicon's production plant.

Located in Nanjing Jiangning District National-level High-Tech Development Zone, the DALU Group is a private high-tech enterprise group involved in high-tech industries including power system measurement and control, environmental protection, information technology and biotechnology. The company's polysilicon production plant continues its work in the energy industry and is the first step in its growth into alternative energy technologies.

Gartner Says Worldwide Semiconductor Capital Equipment Spending to Increase 4 Percent in 2007

Semiconductor capital equipment growth is slowing, and the trough will push out into the first quarter of 2008, leading to flat growth in 2008, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc. Worldwide semiconductor capital equipment spending is projected to total $43.7 billion in 2007, a 4.1 percent increase from last year. In 2008, the worldwide spending is expected to increase 0.3 percent.

The increase in worldwide semiconductor capital equipment spending in 2007 will impact 2008, and Gartner analysts expect 2008 to move from slightly positive for capital expenditure (capex) and wafer fab equipment (WFE) to slightly negative. The outlook for back-end equipment markets remains positive.

After growing more than 18 percent in 2006, packaging and assembly equipment (PAE) market revenue will decline about 3.5 percent in 2007. On a regional basis, Asia/Pacific will continue to increase its share of PAE consumption. From about 66 percent of PAE shipments in 2006, Asia/Pacific will account for almost 77 percent of all PAE sales early in the next decade.

ASE Group and NXP Semiconductors Set Up New Company in China

Advanced Semiconductor Engineering and NXP Semiconductors have completed an assembly and test joint venture. The new company “ASEN” is located in the Suzhou Industrial Park, Southern China and aims to serve the burgeoning global semiconductor assembly and test market. ASEN is formed as a joint venture, and thus ownership is split between ASE (60%) and NXP (40%) and the Board comprises senior executives from both companies. Although the new company will initially focus on mobile communications, it will expand into other segments in the future. ASEN intends to offer a broad range of package types, such as low pin count QFN, LFBGA, SO, TSSOP and other common packages for mobile applications.

In addition to leveraging and expanding the previous assembly and test facility of NXP Semiconductors in Suzhou, ASEN will target further expansion within the next few years. The companies believe Suzhou Industry Park is an excellent location for ASEN as it has a well developed business-friendly infrastructure and provides the company proximity to its customers and markets. The ASE Group provides independent semiconductor manufacturing services in assembly and test.

NXP creates semiconductors, system solutions and software that deliver better sensory experiences in mobile phones, personal media players, TVs, set-top boxes, identification applications, cars and a wide range of other electronic devices.

RFMD Picks Greensboro, Mooresville for New Chip Plants

RF Micro Devices, anticipating growing demand for its wireless chip products, is going to build new facilities in Greensboro and Mooresville and will add 350 jobs.

RFMD announced its $118 million expansion plan after the state of North Carolina’s Department of Commerce and the governor’s office approved economic incentives worth as much as $4.25 million. The Greensboro-based company also received $1.2 million in incentives from the city of Greensboro and $1 million from Iredell County, where the Mooresville facility will be built. Three hundred of the additional jobs will be located in Greensboro, the other 50 in Mooresville. The jobs will be added over a four-year period.

RFMD went ahead with the expansion in North Carolina after reviewing several other states and China as possible locations. The company also was not dissuaded when Guilford County ruled out an incentives package worth $1 million.

RFMD said it expects demand for its chips to increase as more consumers and companies worldwide embrace wireless 3G, or third-generation, networks. A 3G network provides multimedia services at much faster speeds than earlier network technology.

RFMD also expects growth in the WiMax sector. This technology provides high speeds for wireless data transmission and will be deployed by some network providers, including Sprint.

The expansion in Guilford County will cost $103 million, the Mooresville facility $15 million.RFMD employs about 1,800 people in Guilford County now.

RFMD received some good news on Thursday when the company said the U.S. government would not block its $900 million acquisition of Sirenza Microdevices. RFMD announced the deal in August.

RFMD will receive a Job Development Investment Grant from the state. The JDIG was approved by the state’s Economic Investment Committee.

As part of the grant, RFMD will contribute $1.4 million to the state’s Industrial Development Fund. That fund is used to make infrastructure improvements in economically distressed areas of the state.

If RDM meets the new jobs commitment as spelled out in the grant, the state will grant back to the company 70 percent of personal income taxes paid to new employees.
The jobs must be sustained for 11 years.

SanDisk Opens Facility in China

SanDisk Corp. (Milpitas, Calif.), a supplier of flash storage card products, has opened a system-in-package (SIP) assembly and test facility in Shanghai, the company's first in the People's Republic of China.

Based in the Zizhu Industrial-based Science Park, SanDisk Semiconductor (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. (SDSS) is expected to play a critical role in SanDisk's operations as the plant is set to focus on the assembly and test of flash memory products.

The plant produces system-in-package components that incorporate flash memory die and other chips.

The new 34,000 square meter (365,840 sq. ft.) facility is a vertically integrated production operation with all test and assembly processes carried out at the platform receiving wafers from the company's fabrication sources, or fabs, based in Japan to shipping complete products to customers. The production capacity of SDSS is expected to meet approximately 30 percent of SanDisk's projected global demand for SIP products

SMIC Holds 2007 Technology Symposium in Beijing

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation held its technology symposium in Beijing on October 17, 2007, attracting approximately 300 customers, design services providers, technology partners, and vendors.

"Mutual Success through Collaboration and Innovation" was the topic of the 2007 symposium. In the opening speech, SMIC Vice President, Ms. Esther Liu reviewed SMIC's accomplishments through the theme of collaboration and innovation. She thanked all of the customers, partners, and vendors for their continuous support to SMIC and looked forward to further collaboration and mutually beneficial relationships.

Dr. Liang Sheng, Vice President of Beijing Semiconductor Industry Association, spoke at the symposium emphasizing SMIC's critical role in Beijing's IC industry and he hoped to see more cooperation in all areas to develop the industry. Dr. Sun Yuning, President of IGRS Engineering Lab Ltd and Mr. Liu Guangjun, Director of Datang Mobile Communications Equipment CO., LTD, gave keynote presentations at the symposium.

In addition, SMIC presented its latest developments in advanced logic technologies, mixed-signal, RF, spice modeling, memory, embedded memory technology, High Voltage, sensor, and display technologies.

The symposium also featured an exhibition where design services and assembly partners displayed their products and services.

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