OTHER ELECTRONICS AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
INDUSTRY UPDATE
July 2012
McIlvaine Company
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foxconn to Set Up 2nd Industrial Robot Production Plant in Henan, China
Xilinx Boosts Silicon and Electronics Engineering in Ireland
Stork Veco Opens New Cleanroom Facility
IDC Architects Awarded Cleanroom, Lab Design of New Australian Institute of Nanoscience in Sydney
Advantest Breaks Ground for Cheonan, S. Korea Factory
STMicroelectronics and HIT Establish Joint Lab
Maxim Invests in Oregon Semiconductor Fabrication Facility
Foxconn Technology Group, one of world's leading electronic contract manufacturers by output, will set up its second industrial robot production plant in Henan Province, central China, following the first one running in Shanxi, northern China, according to local news agencies.
The reports indicate that the group has recently inked a letter of intent with a county government in Henan Province, planning to set up a plant to turn out automation equipment, precision instruments and bearings, and industrial robots.
Local officials involved in the signing of Foxconn's letter of intent confirmed that the group has actually come to the county to evaluate suitable locations for the planned plant, which is expected to generate operating incomes of over RMB64 billion (about NT$30 billion at RMB1: NT$4.6) when operational in the future. This will become the group's second investment aimed at developing the industrial robot industry in the country.
Presently, the group's first industrial robot production plant is located in Shanxi, which is estimated to turn out one million units of various robots this year. The group's chairman Terry Gou once stated that this plant, which sets the milestone in the group's history of producing intelligent industrial robots, is expected to achieve output value of over RMB50 billion as the world's largest in 2016.
Gou reiterated the importance of industrial robots at the shareholder conference held earlier, stressing that Foxconn aims to widely apply robots to replace workers engaged in tedious, repetitive electronic assembly to effectively automate production and optimize efficiency, which can certainly leverage the group's competitive advantages in the increasingly challenging market for electronic contract manufacturing services.
In the meantime, to relieve growing concerns about big worker layoffs following its robotic production plan, Foxconn promises that it won't cut any jobs but continue to recruit workers to fill the current numerous vacancies in China.
Xilinx Inc. will invest $50 million to expand its electronics engineering operations, located at the company’s EMEA headquarters in Dublin and Cork, Ireland. The company will recruit 45 senior silicon and electronics engineering staff for its regional headquarters in Dublin and for its engineering center in Cork. A further 15 staffers will be hired across a broad range of disciplines supporting the continued growth of Xilinx in Ireland.
The new investment is supported by Irish government through IDA Ireland, and was announced by the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton T.D., and by Kevin Cooney, Corporate Vice President and Managing Director of Xilinx in Europe.
Xilinx’s EMEA headquarters is home to a research, development, engineering and IT center in Dublin along with centralized supply, finance, legal and HR functions. It employs about 250 people.
“Central to the Government’s plan for jobs and growth is deepening and developing the impact of foreign direct investment here. We must not only seek to attract more investment and jobs from top multinational companies; we must also strive to ensure that more of them are carrying out strategic, high-value activities here based on research and development,” said Minister Bruton.
The new investment and immediate recruitment will support the company’s high-level development work for advanced technologies and products where the Irish arm already works in tandem with Xilinx’s Programmable Platforms Group (PPG) at corporate headquarters in the US.
PPG is a global organization responsible for development and delivery of the company’s industry-leading ‘All Programmable’ product portfolio, including 7 series FPGAs, Zynq-7000 SoCs, Virtex-7 3D ICs and Vivado Design Suite. Xilinx's CTO Ivo Bolsens will keynote at the upcoming SEMICON West 2012 in San Francisco, CA. Bolsens will present "All Programmable -- from Silicon to System" on July 11.
Xilinx is a leading multinational investor in Ireland where it first established operations in Dublin in 1995, subsequently building and expanding operations on its own campus. In 2001 it also invested over €50 million in an expansion of its Dublin facilities as the company’s EMEA headquarters. In 2005 it established an offshoot of Xilinx Research Labs in Dublin and in 2011 it acquired the Belfast-based telecommunications technology firm Omiino.
The investment by Xilinx will fuel the development of faster and more powerful programmable semiconductor microchips that will be capable of processing even higher volumes of information within electronic systems. Using these new Xilinx devices will enable developers and manufacturers to create higher performance systems, products and technologies.
Xilinx makes All Programmable FPGAs, SoCs and 3D ICs.
Stork Veco International, Inc. has announced that their manufacturing facility in Eerbeek, the Netherlands, completed the construction of new Class 1,000 and 10,000 cleanrooms for the production of precision electroformed metal parts. Stork Veco fabricates close tolerance, burr-free parts with micron and submicron features and sharp edge definition.
The Stork Veco Cleanroom facility is 17,000 sq.ft. It involved a multi-million dollar investment. According to David Haines, president, Stork Veco USA, "The demand for higher accuracy parts with tighter tolerances requires a well-controlled total manufacturing process in a clean room. By reducing micron level contamination we will continue to improve our quality and increase our customers' assembly yields."
Stork Veco Electroformed Parts feature holes, slots, and complex shapes down to 2 microns with tolerances to ±0.5 micron and can include up to one million holes per square inch. Manufactured to OEM specifications, typical parts include micro-filter media, aerosol and inkjet nozzle plates, orifice plates, optical encoder discs, shaver foils, and stencils.
IDC Architects has been awarded the design of the cleanroom and laboratory for the new Australian Institute of Nanoscience at the University of Sydney. IDC Architects is part of CH2M HILL, a global full service consulting, design, construction, and operations firm.
This new project reunites IDC Architects with UK architectural firm Jestico + Whiles, which worked together on the Mountbatten Nanotechnology Laboratory project for the University of Southampton in the UK. That project won an award for design excellence from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and an American Institute of Architects Honor Award from the AIA’s Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania chapter. Also on the new project’s team is the Australian firm Architectus Sydney.
The new Australian Institute of Nanoscience building will be a world-leading research and teaching facility providing the most advanced equipment and research environment for nanoscience.
Tim Meier, President of IDC Architects, said “This is a good example of how doing good work can lead to more project opportunities. Our success on Mountbatten helped bring us to this new Australia project. Our international nanoscience portfolio now includes projects in the UK, Korea, Egypt, Denmark and the U.S.”
Advantest Corporation announced that its South Korean subsidiary, Advantest Korea Co., Ltd. (Seoul, South Korea) broke ground on June 28 for its new factory in Cheonan City, Chungnam Province, South Korea. The ground breaking ceremony was attended by Cheonan mayor Moo-Yong Sung and other local dignitaries, in addition to representatives from Advantest customers and suppliers, who joined in cutting the tape at the construction site.
The new factory will comprise a two-storey building and a basement area with a total area of 39,821 m2 (428,473 sq. ft.) equipped with environmental friendly Solar panel. Construction costs are expected to be approximately 50 billion won ($44 million / \3.5 billion), with the factory scheduled for completion in December 2012, and production to start in January 2013. The Cheonan factory will produce test handlers, used in conjunction with semiconductor test systems, and peripheral devices including probe cards and device interfaces.
STMicroelectronics (ST) and Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), has announced the opening of a joint laboratory to encourage innovation in electronics. The laboratory is located at the Electric and Electronic Experimental Teaching Center of HIT, with the aim of supporting efforts in the study, research and development of innovative and emerging applications of electronics, such as in medical, power management, and multimedia convergence.
STMicroelectronics will provide the university with its various products, IC samples, and technical documentation, as well as regular training to facilitate students in the design and development of innovative electronics projects. HIT will provide general-purpose facilities and management of the joint laboratory. Initially, the joint lab will focus primarily on smart-sensor applications. The company will donate its advanced iNEMOdevelopment tools supported with an iNEMO software platform.
Patrick Boulaud, STMicroelectronics regional vice president, expects the joint lab to provide contributions in nurturing of the next generation of engineers. He also expects the lab to create new reference designs for the industry.
This joint venture would be HIT's first joint laboratory built upon a project-based learning mode with the goal of inspiring innovation among students. ST hopes to support the development of innovation in electronics applications in higher education as well as enhancing HIT's research capabilities.
Solomon Ng, a regional director for ST, added details regarding the collaboration's initial focus on MEMS-based smart-sensor application development. The joint venture hopes to contribute to different fields such as bio-medicine, energy saving and environment protecting, and user interfaces. The effort hopes to cultivate innovative spirit and practical skills while also promoting bilateral cooperation and exchanges.
Maxim Integrated Products, Inc., a semiconductor company headquartered in Silicon Valley, will invest $75 million to upgrade its integrated circuits fabrication facility in Beaverton, Oregon, where the firm said it will add to its workforce as expansion is completed and production
ramps-up.
Maxim, which purchased the 226,000-square-foot facility from Tektronix, Inc. in 1994, will make the plant more energy efficient, upgrade manufacturing equipment, improve process technologies, and convert to newer technology. The company employs approximately 540 manufacturing and engineering staff at its Beaverton plant, where it produces integrated circuits for electronic devices such as factory automation equipment, GPS and navigation units for cars and planes, satellite systems, and communications devices.
In addition to its Beaverton plant, located west of Portland at 14320 SW Jenkins Road, Maxim also employs approximately 300 workers in The Beaver State at its Hillsboro, Oregon, site which is focused on engineering and administrative functions.
"For nearly two decades, our Oregon employees have proven their commitment to help Maxim deliver the integrated engineering solutions that our partners demand," said Malcolm Delaney, Executive Director of Maxim's Beaverton fabrication facility. "Advanced manufacturing operations must keep pace with the technological needs of the marketplace. This new investment enables installation of next-generation equipment to support Maxim's newest process technologies."
A Maxim spokesman said it did not receive any state or local tax incentives for its project.
With the aid of the Energy Trust of Oregon, an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to helping utility customers benefit from saving energy, the Beaverton plant qualified for state energy tax credits to fund a portion of its energy efficiency improvements. The site is actively looking at additional energy-efficiency opportunities in solar-electric power, lighting automation, and boiler plant upgrades, The Energy Trust said.
“Energy Trust arranged for engineers at Portland General Electric’s Customer Technical Services to provide free energy analyses on all of our projects, lightening the load on our staff,” said Malcolm Delaney, executive site director in an Energy Trust report. “We have received more than $533,760 in Energy Trust of Oregon incentives and each project has qualified for the state energy tax credit.” PGE Customer Technical Services is the local program delivery contractor for Energy Trust.
Maxim's $75 million expansion of its Beaverton manufacturing facility is part of the company's $200 million multi-year investment to upgrade its U.S. manufacturing facilities in Oregon, Texas and California.
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