OTHER ELECTRONICS AND
NANOTECHNOLOGY
UPDATE
September 2007
McIlvaine Company
TABLE OF CONTENTS
University of Alabama Expands Nanotechnology
Vietnam Set to Become New Semi Hub
Hon Hai to Set Up Operation in Guangxi
GW Plastics Expands China Site
Japan-based Kanto Chemical is Investing S$20 Million in a New Plant in Singapore. Bayer Opens another Carbon Nanotube Manufacturing Facility
Dubai Silicon Oasis Establishes First R&D Laboratory in the UAE
Samsung Plant Construction Starts in Russia
Scotland Launches Electronics Design Centre
Hon Hai Precision Inaugurates New Plant in Vietnam
University of Alabama Expands Nanotechnology
“It” is nanotechnology – the science of the ultra small. And through faculty expertise, recent technology upgrades to the tune of more than $3 million dollars in UA laboratories, and a new cooperative research venture with Imago Scientific Instruments, a world leader in nanotechnology instrumentation, The University of Alabama has positioned itself as a leader in key segments of this revolutionary field.
“Nanoscience is impacting virtually all aspects of society,” said Dr. Judy Bonner, executive vice president and provost at UA. “The University of Alabama’s growing knowledge base in this revolutionary field along with recent state-of-the-art instrument acquisitions enables us, for example, to not only improve manufactured materials, but train the next generation of nanotechnology researchers.”
How small is nano-small? A nanometer is one billionth of a meter. For perspective, a sheet of notebook paper is 100,000 nanometers thick. Or, put another way, it would take a million nanometers to span a grain of sand.
“We’ve built a major research instrumentation center related to nanotechnology,” said Dr. Mike Bersch, director of UA’s Central Analytical Facility, where much of the latest equipment operates. “We want to lead the pack – not be in the pack.”
UA’s latest equipment acquisition in the research of the very small is called a Local Electron Atom Probe, known as a LEAP. Acquired recently from Imago, the highly sophisticated instrument permits UA researchers to determine the position and type of atom in various materials and view the structure in 3-D.
Under an agreement with Imago, which provides support of nanotechnology research across the U.S., Japan, Europe and Asia, UA and the company’s researchers will work jointly on projects.
The University of Alabama is the first academic institution in the Southeast, and only the third in the nation, to obtain Imago’s most advanced probe (the new LEAP Si), according to Imago. There is a fourth LEAP Si at a private U.S. semiconductor company, an Imago company representative said.
LEAP, said Bersch, is ideal for studying semiconductors, the base materials used in manufacturing computer chips and other electronic devices. “We believe this is going to be the instrument of choice for semiconductor analysis,” Bersch said. “Corporate America will come to The University of Alabama to formulate partnerships for LEAP-based research,” he predicted.
Additionally, the LEAP will strengthen Alabama’s existing industries, particularly the development of new light-weight, high-strength materials for automobiles. UA researchers are already collaborating with Nucor Steel and Phifer Inc. in this capacity.
UA: A rich history in the research of the ultra small
The LEAP is the latest in a series of recent nanotechnology enhancements at UA. In 2004 and 2005, the University added to the Central Analytical Facility with two state-of-the-art instruments, a Transmission Electron Microscope and a focused ion beam. In addition, in the fall of 2006, a Transmission Electron Microscope was installed in UA’s Biology Building.
Thompson and Dr. Mark Weaver, also a metallurgical and materials engineering professor, and Dr. Harriett Smith-Somerville, professor of biological sciences, were lead investigators on interdisciplinary, team proposals which won National Science Foundation instrumentation grants contributing to these technology advancements. This group, combined, landed more than $2.4 million in competitive awards.
Numerous UA faculty members have already designed experiments that use the new atom probe to conduct research in magnetic thin films and nanoparticles for computer hard drives, thermal barrier coatings for aircraft engines, and hydrogen fuel cells for next-generation automobiles.
While UA’s foray into nanotechnology-driven research such as fuel cells as an alternative to gasoline powered vehicles, and embedding medicines within nano-sized particles to be implanted directly within diseased cells, is relatively new, the University has a rich history in research of the ultra small.
UA’s Center for Materials for Information Technology, or MINT, has a sparkling 17-year history excelling in nanotechnology-related research. This multi-disciplinary research program, which focuses on information storage, was the first in the South to be designated as a National Science Foundation Materials Research and Science and Engineering Center when it achieved that highly sought designation in 1994. MINT has won three such awards from NSF. The latest funding, awarded in 2002, was for $6 million to be distributed annually through 2008. MINT’s corporate sponsors include Sony, IBM, Seagate, Western Digital, Maxell and Fujitsu.
About Imago
Imago Scientific Instruments Corp. is the recognized world leader in Atom Probe Tomography, providing analytical solutions for manufacturers, engineers and scientists involved in the nanotechnology revolution. The Company’s technology and products provide sub-nanometer element mapping of microelectronic devices and materials. Imago is committed to the sustained advancement of nanotechnology solutions specifically addressed to metrology and analysis challenges in the semiconductor, data-storage and advanced-materials markets. Imago provides worldwide customer support from locations in the United States, Japan, Europe, and Asia Pacific.
The University of Alabama, a student-centered research university, is in the midst of planned, steady enrollment growth with a goal of reaching 28,000 students by 2010. This growth, which is positively impacting the campus and the state's economy, is in keeping with UA's vision to be the university of choice for the best and brightest students. UA, the state's flagship university, is an academic community united in its commitment to enhancing the quality of life for all Alabamians.
Vietnam Set to Become New Semi Hub
The Saigon Hi-Tech Park (SHTP) today looks a little more than a flattened patch of land on the dusty outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's commercial heart.
But like the country itself, it's a place with big ambitions that look set to become a reality. The zone has attracted a whopping Rs.5,662.76 crore ($1.4 billion) in investment over the past five years, and will soon be home to the largest factory in Intel's global network as well as operations from Nidec, Sonion and Jabil Circuit. When it becomes fully operational in late 2008 the first phase of the park will house 40 companies needing over 20,000 workers, a precision mechanics laboratory and a technology training institution, a dedicated wireless broadband network and even a venture capital fund.
And SHTP President Nguyen Dinh Mai doesn't plan to stop there. Employees are already hard at work on a second phase that will bump its total area up to over 600 hectares. The park is also developing rental factories for the smaller firms that will support its larger tenants, as well as a special zone for design, software development and outsourcing firms that will result in a "completed supply chain" and advance the park's strategy of eventually shifting from manufacturing to services.
'Comparable to the best'
Though he admits Vietnam is a "latecomer" to the industry compared to China and
India, Mai says the government is committed to "integrating deeper and deeper
into the global economy," and building a legal framework for technology
companies "that's comparable to the best in the world."
And the world appears ready to take Vietnam at its word. Intel's massive investment may have propelled the country into the headlines, but a host of other names are setting up shop here?Matsushita with an embedded software center, Toshiba with a research and development facility, and the newly formed Vietnam-Chipscale Advanced Packaging Services with a Rs.808.97 crore ($200 million) packaging plant.
Taiwan contract manufacturer Foxconn is reportedly poised to pour some Rs.20,224.15 crore ($5 billion) into factories throughout the country. In a recent study PricewaterhouseCoopers named Vietnam the most profitable emerging market for manufacturing companies, and said it was now a "serious rival destination" to powerhouses India and China.
"The country has always had a very good work ethic; poor families are the most eager to send their children to school," Mai says. "There's a tradition of self improvement and being eager to learn, which results in a workforce that's easy to train?and that's very young."
"Vietnamese engineers are excellent, and very suited to creative tasks," agrees Tsuneo Sato, the outgoing president and CEO of Renesas Design Vietnam, which was one of the first major arrivals to the country when it opened its doors in 2004. "They may not have much experience in design or the semiconductor industry, but they study and learn a lot faster than engineers in other locations."
Warmer reception
Add to this a government that Sato says is "aggressively" looking to groom the hi-tech industry?authorities recently unveiled a plan to more than double annual electronics exports to at least Rs.12,134.49 crore ($3 billion) by 2010?and it's no surprise multinationals find Vietnam a welcoming environment. SHTP, for example, offers investors such goodies as a four-year income tax holiday, import duty exemptions and fast-track visa, investment application and customs services. And many note those moving into the country are likely to get a warmer reception than they would in more crowded destinations.
"In China you have to be an Intel to get attention, whereas in Vietnam you can be a small guy and still get the government's support," says Fred Burke, managing partner at law firm Baker & Mackenzie's Vietnam practice.
But even its biggest advocates say Vietnam needs to address some serious shortfalls if the appeal of the country's young, dynamic workforce has apparently grown to the extent that shortages are starting to emerge, a situation that's likely to grow worse as more companies move in.
"There's a lot more competition in this industry now, so in that sense it's become a bit difficult to hire more good engineers... sooner or later the costs are going to start increasing," says Sato, who is trying to source around 500 staff over the next two years for a new design facility. He believes the crunch is unlikely to ease in the foreseeable future as schools continue to emphasize software over hardware-related skills.
Others say it has become even harder to fill senior positions.
"At the basic engineer level there's a really good pool of talent because Vietnam has a lot of educated people who are strong in math and science," Burke says. "The real shortage is as you get up to the project management level."
Legal professionals also see some aspects of Vietnamese law as problematic, especially if the government hopes to develop the domestic technology industry. Burke says while new technology transfer legislation will make it easier for foreign firms to disseminate solutions or knowledge to local partners, local copyright law leaves the door open for inventors or developers to stake claims to work produced under contract.
Baker & Mackenzie partner Seck Yee Chung notes foreign exchange regulations make it difficult for Vietnamese firms to repatriate earnings from revenue-sharing arrangements, and says the government should encourage collaboration in the information technology industry by making it easier to license business cooperation contracts.
Vietnam also shares some of the weaknesses common to other developing Asian nations.
"Infrastructure, especially in communications, is poor," Sato sighs. "Broadband is still very slow, so when we try to send a lot of data to Japan, everything gets stuck."
A 'looming cloud'
Rick Howarth, general manager of Intel Products Vietnam, says corruption
remains a "looming cloud" over the country, and that its bureaucracy could prove
trying for smaller investors.
"It's easier for us, we've had the red carpet," he says. "The followers, the smaller customers, will have more difficulty than we do. But coming in understanding that there are going to be difficulties, and if you have the right level of patience, it can work, you can get things through the system."
Officials insist they are not ignoring the obstacles that could dog the electronics sector in the years ahead.
"Of course in the years ahead there will be some constraints, but in places like the educational system the country is already making efforts to improve itself," says SHTP's Mai. "There's still time for us to develop."
After all, he says, Vietnam has built an industry from scratch before. "It's the same as with software five years ago, there was nothing here, and no one could imagine that Vietnam would be a place where you could get (development) done," he says. "But nowadays more and more people come to do just that."
Hon Hai to Set Up Operation in Guangxi
Anticipating the free trade zone formed by mainland China and the Assocaiton of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will bring in lucrative business, Foxconn International Holdings Ltd. of the Hon Hai Group recently decided to open operation at an economic zone located in Guangxi Province of China.
The province borders Vietnam, a member of the 10 ASEAN states, making it an ideal springboard into the group from mainland China.
According to the mainland's government mouthpiece Xinhua News Agency and a local newspaper headquartered in Guangxi, Foxconn registered with the Nanning City government to open a precision-electronics venture in the city.
The news organizations pointed out that Foxcoon will invest up to US$3 billion in the economic zone in the long run to focus on deep processing on aluminum materials, electronics-information components, and environmental-protection components. Foxcoon estimated the venture's electronics-information business alone will likely turn out revenue exceeding RMB50 billion (US$6.4 billion at US$1:RMB7.7) a year.
Early this month, Xinhua News Agency reported that Foxconn had planned to invest over US$1 billion in logistics business in the province.
Hon Hai Chairman Terry Gou recently disclosed his plan to construct six major industrial parks in Nanning including an aluminum-material processing park, an aluminum-material deep-processing park, an electronics park, as well as an energy-saving and environmental-protection technology park.
Gou pointed out that Nanning had grown attractive to Taiwanese manufacturers thanks to the formation of China-ASEAN free trade zone and the Pearl Delta Economic Ring as well as the development of the economic zone.
The economic zone covers 42,5000-sqaure kilometers of land, which accounts for 17.9% of Guangxi Province, and population of 12.3 million until 2005, representing one fourth of the province's population. The zone is part of the mainland's "11th Five-Year Plan" and a linkage of the China-ASEAN free trade zone, Pearl Delta and the mainland's West China Development Plan.
Chinese authorities plan to enhance its economic cooperation with ASEAN nations throughout the construction of the economic zone. The mainland's Vice Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng noted that bilateral trades between mainland China and ASEAN will likely reach US$190 billion throughout this year and US$200 billion next year.
In March this year, Jia Qinglin, chairman of the People's Political Consultative Conference, mentioned at a meeting of the conference that the mainland would speed up development of the economic zone. Xinhua News Agency reported that the mainland authorities were developing logistic environment on the economic zone with all-time efforts and planning to develop the zone into transportation and logistic pivot of southwestern China.
GW Plastics Expands China Site
Less than a year after opening a moldmaking and processing/assembly facility in Dongguan, China, contract molder GW Plastics (Bethel, VT) reports it has tripled the facility’s size. GW has invested $1,700,000 on its operations in China. The current expansion increases the facility’s size to more than 40,000 ft² (3700m²).
Investments have included CAD workstations and assorted metalworking machinery for moldmaking as well as construction of a class 100,000 (Class 8) clean-room molding and assembly area. The facility also houses tiebarless and electric molding machines, from Engel and Fanuc Roboshot, to mold parts for its customers in the automotive, healthcare, telecommunications, and office machine markets.
GW Plastics’ other facilities are in Bethel, VT; Royalton, VT; San Antonio, TX; Tucson, AZ; and Queretaro, Mexico
Japan-based Kanto Chemical is
Investing S$20 Million in a New Plant in Singapore.
The complex at Jurong Industrial Estate will be its first in Southeast Asia
and its 8th in the world. The new facility, called Kanto Kagaku Singapore, will
boast a leading edge laboratory that can perform chemical analysis. It will also
be able to produce highly functional chemicals for the semiconductor, hard disk
drive and solar panel industries.
It will have an annual capacity of 6,000 tonnes. Kanto manufactures purified chemicals for semiconductor production processes. The new plant is seen as a boost for the chemicals sector in Singapore.
Julian Ho, Executive Director - Energy, Chemicals and Engrg, EDB, says: "The chemicals cluster, which constitutes the petroleum, petrochemical and specialty chemical sectors, recorded S$75 billion in manufacturing output, almost a third of the total manufacturing pie, making it the largest contributor to Singapore's manufacturing output. Within this, specialty chemicals contributed about 9 percent. But when you look at the value add, the specialty chemicals sector contributed a disproportionately larger share of about 30 percent."
Bayer Opens another Carbon Nanotube Manufacturing Facility
Bayer MaterialScience AG has announced that it is opening a second carbon nanotube production facility in Germany that will be able to produce 30 metric tons of nanotubes annually. This new facility, combined with the company’s pilot production plant, gives Bayer the total capacity to produce 60 metric tons of its Baytube® carbon nanotubes annually. Tony Van Osselaer of Bayer said, “Carbon nanotubes’ potential for innovation will ensure their long-term market success." The article says that the potential market for carbon nanotubes in the next few years may be as high as several thousand metric tons per year. The article further says that carbon nanotube production has mostly been inhibited by “the high costs of synthesis and the relatively large quantities of unwanted impurities in the product.” According to the article, Bayer has developed a new synthesis method that can produce commercially viable quantities of carbon nanotubes with purity consistencies higher than 95 percent. Ralph Weber of Bayer said, “Our aim is to use the knowledge obtained for the next up-scaling of the production process.” Bayer is partnering with H.C. Starck, an international group of companies specializing in the production of refractory metals, engineering ceramics and electronic chemicals, to undertake the scale up.
Dubai Silicon Oasis Establishes First R&D Laboratory in the UAE
Dubai Silicon Oasis (DSO), the region's premier integrated innovations hub for high-tech industries, announced today the launch of its state-of-the-art Research and Development Laboratory, which is located within its main headquarters.
Samsung Plant Construction Starts in Russia
The official ceremony of laying a foundation stone of a Samsung Electronics plant took place in the Vorsino Industrial Park in the Kaluga Region, the RIA Novosti correspondent reports. The agreement on the plant's construction was reached at the 11th International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg this year. It will be the company's first production facility built on the Russian soil.
Preliminarily estimates for the investment in the project stand at 3.5 billion rubles, said Don Joo Lee, president of Samsung Electronics Headquarters in the CIS and Baltic States. The plant will come on stream in November 2008 and reach its full projected capacity in 2010, producing about 2.2 million plasma and LCD TV-sets a year. In the longer run, the facility will also make electronic household appliances. The Vorsino plant will employ 2,600 people, 50 of them foreign professionals.
Don Joo Lee said the company hopes to gain a 25%-30% share of the electronics market in the next three years.
The Vorsino Industrial Park is a 1,000-hectare area 70 kilometers from Moscow, on the border with the Kaluga Region. It was created to house modern production facilities on specially prepared sites with ready-to-use engineering infrastructure. A Nestle Purina PetCare plant has just been completed in the area. There are plans to build an electrometallurgical plant, a furniture factory, a logistics center, a flat glass plant and a food packaging manufacturing facility there.
The Kaluga Region has another industrial park, Grabtsevo, where a Volkswagen plant is under construction now.
Scotland Launches Electronics Design Centre
The University of Glasgow is celebrating the opening of a new electronics design centre.
The £5m facility is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and has been designed to fill a gap in British electronics research. The university says it will be at the forefront of breakthroughs in drug development, communications systems and homeland security.
The centre is also getting backing from electronics firm Agilent. The company will be funding a swathe of research projects, but terms of the arrangement between the two organizations have not been disclosed.
The centre's professor, David Cumming, told us that the really exciting part of the deal was that the university was working with so many partners, both in academia and across industry.
"Agilent is one partner, but we're also working with National Semiconductor, Fujitsu, and Her Majesty's Government Communications Centre," he said.
He explained that the university already has extensive clean-room facilities, and the capacity to manufacture plenty of semiconductor kit, including complete 3-5 group circuits for micro and millimeter wave applications.
"Now we'll be doing design as well. We have the potential to make things, but we're a university, so it'll be on a prototype scale, not manufacturing. We'll be looking to do deals."
Hon Hai Precision Inaugurates New Plant in Vietnam
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, the world's top maker of outsourced electronics, started operations in northern Vietnam, kicking off investment plans it says will reach US$5 billion.
Hon Hai, the nation's largest company -- which manufactures Nokia phones, iPods, Sony PlayStations and laptops -- is planning a string of projects across Vietnam, an emerging economy that hopes to quickly ramp up its high-tech sector.
The company opened an US$80 million plant on Tuesday that will make camera modules, motherboards and connectors in northern Bac Ninh Province, the Vietnam News Agency said.
Hon Hai also plans to build a complex in neighboring Bac Giang Province, north of Hanoi, with a high-tech park, a new residential township, a golf course, a hospital and a theme park, the Nhan Dan daily said.
The investments in the two provinces are worth US$163 million, said the Thoi Bao Kinh Te of the Vietnam Economics Times, but Hon Hai has much bigger plans in Vietnam, which has seen more than 8 percent economic growth in recent years.
Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou said the company plans to become the largest foreign investor in Vietnam with a total capital of US$5 billion in the next three to five years and a local labor force of 300,000 workers.
Vietnam's government said on its Web site that the high-tech project in Bac Ninh had been "implemented at record speed."
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